


Come Around Again

by Darkwalk



Category: Transformers: Prime
Genre: Reincarnation, mentions of previous death
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-18
Updated: 2016-06-16
Packaged: 2018-06-09 07:35:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 31,083
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6895783
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Darkwalk/pseuds/Darkwalk
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"I do not understand." Optimus watched the boy, flickers of other faces overlaying his as whispered names tangled in memories he only half knew. </p><p>Jack smiled, the corners lifting in weathered amusement. "We've been here before. More times than you would believe."</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Arc One: Old Memories

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No, Jack and Miko are not together in case that puts off readers. Some knowledge of G1, Bayverse, and Prime is needed or this probably won't make sense. This focuses mainly on the children but the bots do play a prominent part.

“If this was just an average day with the Autobots, then I don't want to be a part of it. Not anymore.” 

The words echoed through his head like circling vultures, waiting until he wasn't focused on the bike in front of him before descending to prod and tear. Jack clenched his hands into a fist, grabbed the tool he needed, and worked on tightening the greased chain. He would need to fix this before school tomorrow or get up earlier to walk there himself. 

Primus knew how he was going to explain the disappearance of the blue motorbike to his mother. 

It should have bothered him, made him more nervous. But his mother's reaction wasn't the most important thing at the moment. And all that came was a tired sort of exhaustion and distant buzz of anger. Right after followed shame. He had no reason to be angry, not really. He knew what he was getting into. The boy had no right to pace and scowl so when it had been his choice.

An engine rumbled, big and heavy, before Jack heard the vehicle pull into his driveway. Headlights shot through the glass of the half raised garage door and lit up the room, nearly blinding him before flickering off. The partially raised door allowed Jack the view of Bulkhead's tires as the mech rolled to a stop. Black boots with purple laces appeared and the boy heard Miko speak. Her voice was deceptively innocent, holding just the right mixture of female exasperation and concern.

“Can you let me talk with Jack alone for a bit, Bulk?”

“I'll be around the block.” The bot's deep voice answered easily, before he peeled out to patrol the suburbs. Miko waited until Bulkhead was out of hearing and then ducked under the door. In sharp movements, the girl dropped it to close them into the garage and whirled on him. 

“What the Pit are you thinking Witwicky?!” She crossed her arms and glared at him. 

Jack glared right back. He was not happy with her. Setting his tools down, he snapped, “I'm thinking we just met the bots yesterday and we almost all died. I'm sorry if I'd really like to avoid being killed painfully. Been there, done that, don't want to repeat the experience.” It was scary how quickly Miko's face went from aggravated to blank in response to his words. Both humans stared at each other in silence under the dull yellow light above. Finally the girl pulled the stool over and sat down. 

“We promised Spike. We gave our word.” Tired hazel eyes stared at Jack as he hung his head and sat down on the ground next to her. A thin hand reached over to muss up his black hair. “Your hair is getting long. Doesn't June bug you to cut it?” He batted her hand away.

“I know we promised Carly, I'm just tired. And I was already planning on coming back. I just.... I need some calm. Just a little bit.” The boy ignored the dig about his hair and looked up to see Miko staring forlornly into space. “Last time was rough.”

“That's why we have to do better this time Sam!” Miko smacked a fist into her palm before turning thoughtful, “I like the name Sam better than Spike by the way.”

Jack chuckled, “I like that name better too. I'm glad I had my original last name, but being Sam was..... not so fun.”

“I don't know. There were some pretty fun times. I love exploiting the stereotype that teens are idiots. Although I think you took it a little far last time.” She mused, crossing her legs and smirking at him. A glower of blatant unamusement was the only response for a few seconds before Jack pinched the bridge of his nose. 

“Teens being idiots? Miko, you ran through the ground bridge to see a bot-con fight! Which by the way was extremely stupid. I know you have self-preservation skills Mikaela.” he growled, standing and moving back to the bench to finish bike repairs. 

An exasperated sigh blew out and she dogmatically stood by her actions, “I was doing recon. We need to know what we're dealing with and the Cons aren't the same in every universe. I can't figure out contingency plans if I don't know anything about the Decepticons. Too many people died last time! We have to do better, even if that means jumping feet first into the conflict.” 

There was no answer to that, at first. Jack finished the last patch up on his bike and Miko looked out the window. Both of them let their minds wander to previous lives, previous conflicts, and how much it had cost them. Once long ago, Spike and Carly had become family with the Cybertronians. And when they'd died a god had given them an offer they accepted. Be reincarnated to help again and again. 

But the weight of so many events and so many memories was heavy. Turning to look at Miko, the boy broke from his pensive reverie. “Promise you'll be more careful about recon. Although I doubt they'll be so unobservant after this.”

“I would have been fine if you and Raf hadn't followed.”

Jack groaned and leaned against the work bench, replying tersely, “I couldn't leave him alone at base and you're not running into something without me to help. Promise Carly.”

Her eyebrow raised and the female gave him a look he was long familiar with. For a second, another image overlay reality; a Caucasian blonde with blue eyes and hands on her hips disbelieving that he'd helped the Terror Twins pull a prank on Prowl, a tan and dark haired woman hip deep in engine parts waving a wrench as he and Bumblebee took turns playing silly songs on the radio to get her attention. Then the memories disappeared and a younger Asian girl with impetuous behavior continued to stare at him for a long moment. “Alright Spike.” she grumbled. “ I promise I'll be more careful. As long as you keep the name Sam or Jack. They're better than Spike.”

“Sixties names.” The boy flashed a white-toothed grin.

A grimace, “Yeah. I think I'm sticking with Miko. Mikaela is sorta..... one of those snotty girl names.”

Jack struggled to hide his laugh, “Oh really?”

“Yes.” Miko's eyes narrowed. “Miko is much better than my original name. I don't have a clue what my parents were thinking.” She trailed off for a second before crossing her arms, a stray thought making thin eyebrows scrunch. “Does any of this have to do with Bumblebee?”

“What?” The boy startled, not expecting that turn in conversation.

Boots tapped quietly against the concrete, “You know what I mean. He's Raf's guardian but he's been you're best friend through a lot of different lives, and your original.”

Shrugging, Jack made a so-so gesture with his hands, “I'm okay with it. Bee's.... not the same as he used to be when we first met. Different universe, different events, I get that. And I'm glad he's found a new friend. I do miss how we used be though.” Carly frowned and looked downward, knowing there was nothing more to say about it. She still missed hanging out with Ironhide at the Ark. Even last universe when he showed up the mech had been around Lennox more than her and she'd often ended up helping Ratchet in the repair bay. Spike was right, things changed and it hurt the heart because the bots never remembered them. 

“Besides,” Jack continued, “Bee's a good guardian and I don't want today's events to happen to Raf again.”

Miko's head jerked up. “That kid's suspicious.” She'd been wanting to say that since yesterday but hadn't had a good chance and then forgotten later.

“What, Raf?” An incredulous snort as he pulled some candy out of a drawer in the bench and tossed a piece to her. She caught it and tore open the wrapper but scowled before taking a bite. Miko wasn't letting this go. 

“Yes. What kind of twelve year old can hack the Fed's mainframe? They have genius coders and hacker set up those firewalls. You do recall the one time Jazz needed to break into their records, right? He said they were pretty good for humans.” That last part was mumbled around the candy.

Jack shrugged, “Yeah, but that was in our original universe.”

“Government files are not easy to break into, no matter what universe. Unless you have a bot to help.” 

“Okay, point taken. Don't underestimate the gov. But what does that say about Raf except that he's really smart.......” He trailed off as Miko finished her candy and continued to stare at him waiting. After a second it clicked. “You think he's Chip.”

“If the armor fits.” She retorted blandly using an old phrase they'd picked up somewhere. Miko couldn't remember anymore who'd taught it to her. “Super smart computer geek with glasses? Sounds pretty familiar.”

Shaking his head, the boy tapped his fingers on the wood benchtop, “It's always been one or two of us. But three or even all four of us.... We haven't been together since the beginning.” Every time they either were alone to help the bots with unaware humans or they managed to find one of the others. But it had been lifetimes since Carly, Spike, and Chip had all been in the same place. Not since the beginning, as they referred to their original universe.

They both paused to turn their heads as an engine grew closer. Peering out the window, the girl noticed Bulkhead slowly driving back towards them. She turned around and gestured silently to the outside. Jack sighed and nodded. “I'll come back tomorrow and drop some hints to Raf, see how he reacts.”

“Good. Want me to get Arcee to come talk some sense into you?” She moved over to pull him into a hug. They may not be together like they were originally, but they'd found they made better friends and close family than a couple. Jack hugged her back, arms wrapped tight to hold onto the one lifeline to the past that he still had. 

“That would be nice. Thanks Miko.”

He released her and she flicked his hair out of the way, an old habit that had started almost right after they'd met. “Seeya tomorrow Jack.” She walked backwards and gave a Jazz salute, lazily with two fingers, before lifting the door and sliding out. By now, Bulkhead was in the drive and waiting. Cool night air rushed in with the sound of cicadas and Jack heard the girl climb into the truck before the mech voiced a question.

“Miko, why do you smell like chocolate?”

“It's called bribery Bulk.” The boy grinned but remained silent to better hear the rest of her explanation, “Candy is a great way to bribe children.”

The pair drove off into the night and Jack opened the door fully, standing at the entrance and staring up at the star strewn sky. The question had bothered him the last couple lives. Had they really made the right choice, coming back again and again to help the Autobots?

Listening to the silence and the dark, the boy closed his eyes and hummed the tune Bumblebee had taught him. They'd been in the repair bay after Megatron had messed with Bee's memories and Spike had been so worried. Ratchet had yelled at him to settle down and that everything was fine but he'd felt sick that his best friend had been so hurt. Then Bee had given him a hug and taught him songs the mech had learned on Cybertron, before the war had brought the Golden Age to it's knees. 

Letting the Cybertronian lullaby twine with the night, Jack who was once Sam who was once Spike had to say things weren't perfect by a long shot, but he didn't regret being here.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Carly (G1): A Caucasian woman who goes to MIT and has a gift for chemistry and electronics. Usually found in Ratchet's medbay learning Cybertronian systems, Wheeljack's lab, or at the shooting range with Ironhide. She is not allowed in the armory without supervision due to an incident involving the Decepticon base and Wheeljack's Immobilizer.
> 
> Mikaela Banes (Bayverse): A dark-haired mechanic who gets hit on more than she'd like. Apparently pretty okay with being friends with giant metal aliens and has no patience for government BS in the form of S7 or Seymour Simmons. Feared by any Decepticons or Autobots shorter than Bumblebee, (Frenzy, Wheelie, Skids, and Mudflap). Nicknamed "Warrior Goddess"and sometimes uses a blowtorch or a power saw as a weapon.
> 
> Spike Witwicky (G1): An adventurous good-natured guy who is best friends with Bumblebee and Chip Chase. He occasionally gets pulled into the Twins pranks and often spends a lot of time teaching the Autobots about earth culture. Doesn't hesitate to help the bots if a situation arises and sometimes gets in a little over his head but Bumblebee is always there to pull him out.
> 
> Sam Witwicky (Bayverse): A somewhat spazzy teen who tends to panic and start to ramble. Like most typical boys, he likes cool cars and girls but he has better luck with the former. Regardless of his people skills though, when pushed to it he can be brave and will do anything to keep the Autobots safe. Even unwillingly kill Megatron. When not being threatened or about to die, his snark and dry humor show through.
> 
> Chip Chase (G1): A wheelchair bound teenager with a genius level IQ and reddish hair. He's very skilled in computer programming. The boy tends to be calm and finds the Cybertronians fascinating like Carly does, although he's more interested in their history and science. When he's not hanging out with Spike and Bumblebee or the science bots, he's playing chess with Prowl and learning Cybertronian. Some suspect that Jazz taught him how to hack.


	2. Arc Two: Meeting Lost Friends

“'Sup Raf.” Miko greeted, hopping over some small boulders and plopping down next to the boy. Out in the Nevada desert, the kids had made a shelter under a slanting plate of rock that jutted out into the air. Beneath it's support, Raf was settled on a blanket with his computer in his lap and an electric lantern providing enough dim light to see his friend. 

“Carly.” He acknowledged without lifting his eyes from the screen, “Arcee didn't get called into base like Bulkhead and Bee, so Spike had to sneak out. He'll be here soon.”

The girl nodded and started to pull things out of the pack she'd brought. A sketch book landed on the ground and was soon joined by small half-finished engineering projects, tools, pens, and several cell phones with mismatched plating or no backing at all. Laying on her stomach, she picked up a small pair of tweezers and started to rewire the insides of one of the larger phones. “Can I have your phone?”

“No.”

Miko looked up with a frown, “Aw come on! Afraid I'll break it?”

“The last time I gave you my phone, you and Wheeljack built in an alarm that nearly broke my eardrums.” Rafael gave her a look. “You have stuff to play with. Stay away from mine.”

“I was just gonna add an emergency button.” She rolled here eyes. “You know, in case you need to call the bots but don't have a lot of time.” Miko didn't bother to defend herself about the last time she'd borrowed Chip's phone. For the record, it had actually been Perceptor's idea. They'd just forgotten that a louder alarm could potentially damage a human's hearing. The two were interrupted by scraping footsteps as Jack stepped out of the surrounding dark and around the boulders that blocked them from view. He sat down with a sigh.

“Are you guys arguing about the smoke grenades again?”

Miko snorted and tapped the small stuffed animals on her belt that contained homemade defense weapons. “Nope.”

“I really don't think you should carry those.” Raf passed the older boy a water bottle before continuing his typing. “I know we need something to keep ourselves safe should the bots not be there, but if someone finds them then you're going to have to explain.”

“If the bots ever heard any of these conversations, we'd have to do a lot of explaining.” Jack grumbled and then cast the boulders a wary look before taking an appreciative sip. “And I think we need another meeting place. There's not enough rock formations around besides this one. No place to hide if someone comes around.”

“Tomorrow Bulk and I are dune bashing. I'll keep an eye out.” Brushing her pigtails off her shoulder, Miko finished playing with one of the phones and pulled over her notebook and started flipping through pages while Rafael reassured Jack with a smile. 

“I have a scrambler set up. No one can listen in and I'll pick up any Cybertronian energy signals once they get in a two-hundred yard radius.”

Finding the right spot, Miko showed the boys her list. “Okay, top priority. Security. Sam?”

“Sam?” Questioned the hacker, “That was your name last time?”

Jack shrugged, “Yeah. Better than the one time we were Markus and Adam.”

Chuckling at the memories, Raf nodded before Miko cleared her throat and threw a screwdriver at Jack's legs. “Security. What did you get?”

“It sucks.” Brushing his dark hair out of the way, he pulled his legs in Indian style and grimaced. After the scraplets had ravaged the base, Jack had helped Arcee repair a large number of areas and had used that as an opportunity to get a good look at the security system. “It's basics. And I mean really basic. Red would have a cow if he saw this.”

“Cybertronians can produce organic four legged mammals?! Sound the alarms and lock down the base!” Miko gasped in mock horror. Jack snickered at her impersonation of Red Alert but Rafael's face scrunched up in annoyance and he leaned over to yank on her elbow. 

“Stop that Carly! Red isn't that bad!” 

The girl's eyes widened as she looked at him, shoulders slumping, “Sorry Chip. I know he isn't. I was trying to lighten the mood.”

“I.... I know.” Chip mumbled, kicking the pebbles near his tennis shoes, “I haven't seen him in awhile though. It makes me worry when I don't see people for several lifetimes.” Spike and Carly traded worried looks before she leaned over to squeeze the kid in a hug. 

“I saw him two lifetimes ago. He was actually a bit calmer than he used to be.”

Raf looked up at her, distress and fatigue flickering through his expression before he sighed. “That's good. Sorry for worrying..... I keep freaking out about things when I know I've faced worse.” The girl pulled back and waited patiently as he readjusted his glasses in an age-old habit.

“You're twelve dude.” She supplied. “It's how your body and mind work. You'll grow out of it. Maybe. But back to security. None of us know a whole ton about it.....”

Straightening a little, Jack actually smiled, “A few rounds ago I was by myself and ended up spending time with Hot Shot and a bot named Gizmo. Gizmo was in charge of security on base, so I picked up some stuff. Not a ton, but enough to help. And I can set up some of those prank traps the Twins and Bee used to put in the vents of the Ark.”

“As long as the bots don't get caught in it. Or find it.” Raf mused and then piped up hesitantly, “I was thinking, Carly, that you should show the bots how good you are with mechanics. That could be really useful. And Ratchet's going to need help if he's the only medic here. We just don't know the bot's systems as well as you do.”

“It'll ruin her 'rebellious teen' image.” Jack replied drily with air quotes. 

Miko grimaced and muttered under her breath, playing with the springs and washers scattered around her little toys before finally grumbling. “Cybertronian tech is cool. If I swing it that way, maybe I can ease the others into me liking electronics and engineering. Startling them with something surprising would be bad. I don't know how Bulkhead would react.”

“Too bad we don't have some of Wheeljack's old schematics. You could build some pretty awesome weapons.” Sighed Raf. The girl lifted her notebook and tapped the second item on the list. 

“Supplies. I remember how to make some of 'Hide's weapons but I don't have the right materials, the bots don't have a lot of stuff to work with, and there's not way Docbot is going to let me near his tools. By the way, did either of you notice how much sassier he's gotten?” A grin broke over her face and lifted the slightly somber atmosphere. Suddenly, the night didn't seem quite so forlorn.

Jack rolled his eyes in mirth. “Absolutely sardonic. But he's not cussing like a dock worker.”

“Yet.” Added the youngest with a smirk. 

“I want to be as effortlessly snarky as Ratchet.” Miko pouted. “That's my new life goal. Right up there with crushing cons. Which is why I need better materials so I can make me some kick-ass hydrocannons.”

Raf lifted one eyebrow and turned to Jack, tone deadpan. “I could swear she gets fierier every lifetime. That or she was more subtle about it before.”

“She's always been a spitfire. Ironhide encouraged her.”

“Hey!” She leaned across the lantern to smack the older teen on the head. “There is nothing wrong with being a spitfire. It saved your life more than once.”

He easily agreed with a smile. “Yes.”

“Alright alright. You two still fight like there's no tomorrow.” Raf laughed before turning serious. “But I don't think there's anything we can do about supplies except keep our eyes open. What's next on your list?”

“Langauge.” She answered him with a dark look. “Letting the bots know you understand Cybertronian is suspicious. It's a wonder they haven't questioned it yet. Beyond that, we need to learn more. I only know how to pronounce some names and swears.” Miko lamented and lay back down to flip through her notebook before stopping at a page covered in charts of Cybertronian glyphs. “I can translate most of it just fine if it's written out but they speak too fast and a lot of those characters sound the same to me. Not all of us had a tactician go out of his way to teach us his native language.”

Jack jumped in, “I've picked up some more here and there, so I can understand about half of what Bee says.”

“I'll try teaching you.” Raf nodded, “And I know it was risky but if we don't understand him it leaves him out. He's got enough to worry about besides communication barriers.” Guilt and indecision still played across the young boy's face. He tapped his fingers against the keys in frustration.

“Suggest he use sound clips or the radio.” Witwicky stretched and put his hands behind his head as he leaned against one of the rocks. “Last time he used that because he couldn't speak at first.”

“Okay, fourth. Why are we all here.” Miko urged, trying to push the conversation along. They were lucky the night was warm but being out late meant they would be hiding the lack of sleep tomorrow. They needed rest eventually. The boys stared at her startled before sharing a concerned look. This topic had been bothering them for awhile now and none of them had broached it because no clear answer had presented itself. 

“You mean why the pattern had broken. Three instead of two or one.” Chip stated, lips thinned and restless hands pushed up his glasses to keep themselves busy. “There's no way to tell. I'd suggest that this time the bots need more help but........”

“Last time was bad and it was still only two.” Sam's eyes flashed, a short bark of an answer interrupting. Raf shrugged helplessly and bit his lip before speaking again.

“Hey Spike.... how many lives have you been through?”

Frozen silence pierced the night before the teen opened his mouth to croak. Swallowing, he tried again. “Eight.”

“Nine for me. I think.” Miko whispered, her boots scraping across the sandy ground as she rolled over to glare at the stars and half moon. Neither of the other two commented on the rough quality of her voice. “Why does it matter?”

“I dunno. Maybe it has to do why there's more of us. Maybe it doesn't.” 

Rolling back onto her front, she started to fiddle with the scattered pieces around her and gave a rumble of annoyance. The female scowled, “It probably isn't anything important. I just wanted to bring it up in case you guys had ideas. But if Raoul shows up and it's all of us...... then something big might be coming.” Jack reached close to hand her the screwdriver she was looking for. 

“Thank Primus Astoria either didn't get asked or said no.”

Startled laughter broke out of Chip and Carly, bouncing off their shelter and causing the youngest to nearly choke before he took a drink of water. “I can agree to that.”

“She was soooo annoying.” Miko moaned, dropping her head to the ground before resting it on her forearms. “If she had agreed I think I would have shot that idiot.” Jack gave her an incredulously amused look, smirk twitching across his face. 

“And break Powerglide's spark?”

Miko huffed and tossed a bolt at him which he caught smoothly. “Come off it Witwicky. He would have found someone better. That girl was a self-centered moron.” A quite beep sounded from Raf's computer. The boy's eyebrow's scrunched as he studied the screen.

“And we all haven't had moments like that?” Jack snorted.

A growl, “I care about more than looks.”

“Of course you do 'Kaela. We know that. I wasn't trying to imply-”

“Guys.” Chip tried to break in to the little argument.

“You better not have been implying.” The Asian girl snapped, eyes narrowed. Jack threw his hands up in frustration. 

“I wasn't!”

“Guys!” A louder yelp as the hacker gestured to get their attention. “Incoming Arcee!”

For a second the other two froze, the lantern's blue glow throwing deep shadows over their horrified faces. Then Miko rapidly tossed everything she'd brought back into her pack. Jack scrambled over to help. “Scrap. I'll have to lie. I hate lying to them.”

“You're so in trouble dude. Just don't panic, you'll spaz and start to ramble.” She retorted.

“Will not!” He hissed back.

Miko huffed but zipped up her pack, leaving out only her sketchbook. After another few seconds hesitation, she flipped to a page with a detailed drawing of a normal earth vehicle engine and left it open. She quickly whispered to the others, “Spike do security. I'll keep working on small weapon plans. I'm almost done figuring out stun guns with high voltage. We'll find a new meeting place too. Raf?”

“Yeah yeah, do the 'innocent little kid' thing.” Raf grumbled, ducking his head back down behind his computer screen. “I'm not completely defenseless you know.”

“I was gonna say try to up the firewalls for the base but I bet you've already done that.” The girl said nothing more as another voice from outside their camp made them go quiet.

“Jack?” 

Arcee's call floated through the empty desert as she slowly made her way towards the large stone outcropping. It was fairly flat and empty for several miles in all direction with only a few scrub brush plants clawing out of the rock. The femme frowned, using night vision to look for footprints in the dirt and finding only partial ones that led to the rocks. Worry and unease threaded through her systems as she peered around the boulders. “Kids?!”

The children looked up at the bot with wide eyes and sat unmoving around a light under the shadow of the stone slab. Arcee felt slightly better as she realized Jack hadn't gone off alone but none of them should have been out in the desert by themselves. “What are you three doing here at this time of night?”

Miko shot Jack a quick annoyed look that he ignored before shrugging at the femme, “Couldn't sleep.”

“The scraplets.....,” Raf mumbled, not faking the shiver, “were kinda creepy.” It wasn't an understatement. None of them had ever dealt with scraplets before and almost losing their bots today had pushed the children to meeting and discussing what they could do to help. 

Frowning, Arcee dimmed her optics. She hadn't thought the children had been so affected by the fright earlier. Internally wincing, she reminded herself that they were not adults, not even Jack although he acted like it most of the time. They needed to do a better job of keeping the kids safe. “The scraplets are in the Arctic. We won't have to worry about them anymore.”

There was no response as the children looked at each other and silently wondered what they were supposed to do next. Crouching down to be more on their level, the bot asked dryly, “Is this a 'human's only' slumber party or can I join?”

“There's plenty of room.” Jack scooted closer to the twelve year old and patted the empty ground for her to sit. 

His jaw was clenched, eyes wary, but tone still calm. Arcee wondered if he expected her to chew him out for disappearing like he did. She had planned to, but now she wasn't so sure that was really a great idea. As Arcee sat down her optics caught the rough drawing in Miko's book. “That's very good.”

“I like seeing how things work.” A flat response and shrug as the girl's eyes bore into Jack's across the circle. He gave the slightest nod to show he understood what she was doing. Clever woman. No matter what name she had, Carly was always clever. There was no time like the present to get the bot's used to Miko tinkering. 

“Maybe you should ask Ratchet to show you some things.” Lightly touching the detailed sketch with a finger tip, the blue and pink motorbike tried to give a soft smile. 

Getting along with others and socializing were not her forte. But that didn't mean she couldn't try. And Arcee had noticed how subdued Miko's usual tone was, although a core of iron still rang under her words. The human female let out a somewhat bitter chuckle. “I case you didn't notice Cee, Doc doesn't like me that much. Don't worry though, I'll bring him around.”

“You could try not purposefully antagonizing him.” Raf piped in, looking up over the edge of his computer. 

Lips stretched over teeth as Miko grinned sharply, “He does it as much as I do. Gotta have someone to practice barbed insults on.”

Arcee looked over at her charge as he remained silent, apparently content to listen in on the banter. Noting the dark skin under his eyes, and the other two children's, she murmured, “Did you guys have nightmares?” Cybertronians didn't dream so the bots were fascinated with the human ability to do so. In their research however, the idea of nightmares had left them feeling uneasy. They couldn't understand what it felt like but it seemed quite terrible. 

Raf sucked in a short breath, teeth worrying his bottom lips. Jack didn't even flinch and continued to stare at the lantern blankly. Sighing, Miko rubbed her eyes. They wouldn't have to lie now. Too many memories. Too many lifetimes. And they hadn't all died peacefully. 

“Yes.” A frank reply from the eldest human. 

Winglets shifting in dismay, Arcee curled her servos into fists. “I'm.... not the best person to help with that.......” She did not know how humans handled such things. Whatever bits of information she'd gathered about nightmares was vague and often contradictory.

“Hum something. A song from Cybertron.” Jack turned to her and smiled tiredly. Without waiting for a response, he got up and settled himself against her side, eyes shutting. Raf closed his computer and scrambled over to curl up between Arcee's warm armor and Jack's front, gladly accepting the hug and somewhat sprawled over both of them. Openly smirking at the femme's open-mouthed expression, the last human made her way over and flopped down with her head on Jack's shoulder and an arm hooked around the motorcycle's elbow. 

Looking the way one did when unexpectedly holding a pile of exhausted puppies, Arcee stared down at them for a long silent moment. All of the children had their eyes shut and could have been sleeping if not for the average heart rate and tense limbs. Finally she shuttered her own optics. 

“One song. Then I'm walking all of you home.”  
.  
.  
.

“....mass displacement, trauma, twisted limbs, metal burn!” Ratchet finished his rant as Miko suggested he bridge them onto the train that held the DINGUS. The three children stared at the agitated medic with barely hidden perplexed amusement. Miko's lips twitched up.

Seeing their expressions, Ratchet realized what was wrong with his statement. “Well..... maybe not that last one.”

“Does it help that we have coordinates?” Raf supplied, pulling up the map on screen. 

Optics narrowing, the mech huffed and grumbled. “I suppose that will do. But don't say 'I told you so' if you get hurt. I don't know how to fix you.” He warned them before pulling the lever to start the ground bridge. Miko managed to wait until they landed in the train before bursting out laughing. 

“Hahahahaha! Metal burn!” She clapped her hands over her mouth and continued to giggle. “Man we need to teach the Doc about human repair! Remind me later that we have to do that.”

Jack landed on his feet with a thud, jarred by the suddenly shaking floor. Jumping off of high places was apparently pretty good practice for lunging out of ground bridges, even if it still vibrated in his bones. “At least it shows he cares.” The boy looked around the nearly empty train car and groaned when his partner picked up the ax. “How do you keep getting your hands on those?”

“I don't have a power saw handy.” Mikaela smirked, reminding him of the time she'd cut off Frenzy's helm last life. She swung the blade to get a good feel of it before pulling a small gun out of the pocket of her shorts. “Here, I got the taser working. Turn that switch and it'll lower the voltage to shock humans instead of Cybertronians.”

“For the record, I agree with Chip. You're scary sometimes.” Spike rolled his eyes and got into a fighting stance like he'd been taught. The memory of Jazz teaching him, Bumblebee and Hound basic defense in the Ark danced through his head before fading. “I hate fighting humans. These MECH guys are like Sector Seven but they're not stupid or playing around.”

The girl smirked, “We're not either. I would really hate to die by explosion Sam. You already did that once and I'll kick your ass if you do it again.” 

She took one of the stuffed animals off her belt and pulled a small orb from the stuffing. Sparks flew as someone on the roof started to cut open a whole. As the sheet of metal fell, three masked men stared down at the teens. Miko forgot for a second that she was Carly or several other people she'd lived as and focused entirely on being Mikaela. For some reason, she's always had better luck persuading people to do things when she'd been the dark haired woman. 

“Hi.” 'Kaela flashed her teeth and gently swung the ax as if it were some random item she just happened to be holding instead of a weapon. “You should leave now.”

Somewhat taken aback and confused, the thieves looked at one another before one used a radio to confer to their boss. In that moment, the female struck. She threw the orb up toward the new skylight and it flashed, nearly blinding the men and exploding in a cloud of dark heavy smoke. Jack raised his stun gun and fired.

'Two hands unless both have weapons, stand with your legs spread and balanced. Remember not to close your eyes or you will miss.' Lennox's voice echoed through his ears.

Little metal prongs with wires attached shot out and through the cloud, unfortunately not hitting a target as they snapped right back into the gun. Someone had yelped though, so he'd been close. Miko used the cloud cover to move to the other side of the hole and waited with the ax raised. Jack made sure the gun was reset and put his back to the wall. 

However, the expected fight never came. When the smoke cleared, the humans could see the helicopter taking off. A rocket fired to somewhere ahead of the train. Miko and Jack shared a long look before hauling open the cargo door. 

To the cliffs on the right of the runaway train and keeping pace, the two could see the reason MECH was retreating; Optimus. Looking ahead showed a hole and twisted metal instead of tracks. Apparently MECH had issues with losing and wanted the DINGUS gone. Mouth thinning into a very disgusted expression, Miko looked to where the helicopter was watching and raised a hand to flip them off. 

“I don't like today. And I'm going to ask Raf to hack their systems and destroy them.”

“If we survive that is.” Jack murmured, sweat breaking out all over his skin. Just because he'd died before didn't make it any easier to handle. If anything, the memories of more painful deaths just jump-started his self preservation instincts into hyper drive. He took a deep breath to try and stay as calm as Miko appeared. “Can't jump, we're going to fast. Can't move the thing out, it will explode. That leaves stopping, which we can't do because there's not enough time to get to the front and neither of us know how to drive a train.”

“Guys?... What's going on? Are you still there?” Rafael's voice called through the phone in Jack's pocket. He winced, forgetting it had been on speaker phone and tried to keep the fear out of his tone. 

“Tracks blown and we can't stop.”

Miko fumed, switching between glaring at the hole ahead and the copter above. Some of the worst insults she knew muttered out in Japanese, Russian and Cybertronian. Jack put a hand on her shoulder and nodded at the Prime that was keeping pace. “Think you can get Optimus to get us out of here?”

“It won't matter. That thing will destroy the whole state.” The girl snapped quietly. In the background of Jack's phone, they could hear Ratchet telling Optimus that he had to stop the train. Raf answered grimly. 

“Brace yourselves.”

Jack handed Miko back the stun gun and crouched to grab hold of the bars on the door. “Story of my life.” 

“We've survived worse slaggit!” She put away her weapon and clung tightly to the door, “We can't die when we just found them! We've been through WORSE!!” Carly shouted the last part, the word swept away by the wind currents. Fear, frustration and despair played across her face even as Jack reached over to hold her hand. She gripped his tightly and shut her eyes as Optimus grabbed the train engine and dug his feet in. 

It buckled and shook, momentum carrying it forward against the force of the Prime. The kids yelped and held tight as the entire train started to tip slightly to the right side. Squealing metal wheels threw off sparks. Optimus' engine let out a roar and he shoved harder against the train while being pushed closer and closer to the destroyed tracks. After a horribly long moment, the shaking stopped.

Jack opened his eyes to see they were at a standstill, the Autobot leader straightening and coming toward them. The train was only a few inches from the twisted and broken tracks. A whoop too close to his ear made him lurch.

“Whooo! Bossbot did it!” Miko cheered, a fist raised.

-totally beat those Decepticreeps!” Carly laughed, a victorious fist in the air as she jumped in happiness. Optimus looked down at her, the corners of his optics crinkling in amusement. Spike smiled widely, waving at Bumblebee as he made his way over from the partially destroyed airport buildings. He was glad no one was too badly hurt. Near the planes, Grimlock stretched his helm up and roared at the retreating seekers-

“The children are safe.” Optimus' stated, apparently in reply to Ratchet's question. Jack sighed in relief now that the situation was calm.

“Don't forget the device that could destroy several states.” He told the Prime dryly. Optimus nodded seriously and chuckled when Miko punched the boy in the shoulders. 

“Did you see that?!” Miko ignored the protest Jack gave in response to her light hit, “Total bad-ass moment!”

All three of them glanced skyward as the helicopter started to fly away. Jack sighed. As if Decepticons weren't enough to deal with. He looked up at the Autobot leader, expression tired. “Thanks Optimus. You think we could go back to base now?”

“That may be best.”

A solemn nod as a ground bridge opened to take them home. Jack cast one more look at the tracks while Miko whined in the background about being left out. It seemed that even with Megatron supposedly dead, it was not going to be easy sailing.  
.  
.  
.

“Soooooo, what kind of signals? Like SOS or energon crystals....” Miko tried to keep her tone light as she questioned the bots about the newest mission. 

Instead of their guardians showing up at school to take them to base, Bumblebee had brought all three of them. Arcee and Bulkhead were waiting by the ground bridge when they hopped out. They were going to investigate some signals coming from a city several states over and the children were quite keen on coming too.

“Unknown.” Ratchet replied bluntly, digits tapping the keys as he tried to get a better fix on the readings, “They keep flickering in and out and I can't get a proper lock on them. I can say with some certainty that there is at least two and they're Cybertronian in origin.”

“Awesome! Field trip!” Grabbing the backpack she'd set down, Miko eagerly ran over to the ground bridge.

Bulkhead put a servo down to block the way, “Wait a minute Miko.”

“You three are staying here.” Hands on her hips, Arcee raised an optic ridge at the stormy expression the girl gave her. 

Miko was an adult. Well, technically a teen with the memories of several lifetimes but she could behave like an adult when she wanted to and she was not going to accept anyone treating her like a child unless the situation called for it. Especially when the first time Carly and Arcee had met, Carly had been the one to take the femme under her wing so to speak and teach her about earth. The switch around with Arcee acting like a parent was not appreciated all the time. And not when Miko was dead set on sticking close to the bots.

“I'm actually agreeing with Miko on this.” Jack stated slowly, an apologetic glance sent to his guardian, “If it's in the city and no one has seen it or them yet, then it's probably not obvious and you might need some help dealing with all those people.”

“Yeah, let us run human interference!” Arms crossed, the girl raised her chin and looked at Optimus to mediate. The Prime deliberated for a moment before nodding. 

“They have a valid point. But at the first sign of danger, you three are coming back here.”

He ignored Arcee's optic roll as the kids smiled. Bulkhead lifted Miko up to sit on his shoulder plates while Raf ran over to join Bumblebee, not wanting to be left out. As the group disappeared through the ground bridge, Ratchet emitted an amused snort. “You're too soft. Soon enough they'll just give you a sad face and you'll give them whatever they want.”

“I would like to think I have some strength and will.” Optimus retorted fondly, “Besides, I do believe I saw you repairing that game of theirs earlier.”

“Hmph! Well,” Flaring his white and orange armor, Ratch said nothing more as he didn't have a good excuse. Really, he could have said it was so the kids would stay out of his way and occupy themselves but Optimus would have seen through his gruff reply. The Prime just chuckled. Neither of them knew that Miko and Raf had already been planning to fix the video game.

In another part of the country, the kids hopped into the seats of their guardians and watched out the windows as they merged into traffic. Jack put his helmet on so he could talk to Arcee without looking like a crazy person talking to himself. For several hours the group roamed the city, splitting up several time to cover more ground before meeting up again. Around dinnertime, they finally found a plaza to park and take a break.

“Uhggg....” Miko hung a limp arm out of Bulkhead's window. “There's nothing here.”

People walked by, chatter and the white noise of society a background hum as the sun flashed rays between the tall buildings. Smoke and sweat seeped through the concrete but was washed over with the delicious scent of fried food from the open stalls. 

Jack checked the money in his wallet. “How about I buy some food for us and you guys keep searching. We'll meet up in half an hour?”

“I don't think you three should be by yourselves out here.” Headlights flickered as Arcee put he kickstand down and Jack climbed off. Bumblebee hummed an agreement until Raf patted his hood.

“Don't worry Bee. We'll stick together and stay right here.”

A loud growl from Miko's stomach made Bulkhead chuckle and the motorcycle revved her engine in weary acceptance, hologram flickering on. “Fine. But stay here.”

“Unless we're being chased by Cons.” Jumping down, the girl grabbed onto Jack's arm and started tugging him along the sidewalk, “Do you have enough for shrimp? I saw some this way.” The boys waved at their guardians as they pulled out and headed back through the city. It turned out Jack did have enough to get Miko her shrimp while the other two each picked something. Eating while looking at the shops and circling the plaza, they eventually found a street dancer off to the side of a large road that led away from the open area. Fast paced dance music blared from a dented boombox behind him. The flame bandana caught Jack's eye. Following a vague sense of deja vu, he gestured for the others to join him and they sat nearby to watch while finishing their dinner. 

The teen was about Jack's age, possibly a little older, with bronze skin that spoke of mixed heritage and dark brown hair. Raf finished his sandwich and narrowed his eyes at the dancer. As the guy twirled, slid, and spun, a memory dragged him away from the present.

-the argument got louder and Chip look over at the Latino boy shouting with his hands up in the air in frustration. An engine rev, as the Firebird corvette snapped out a response and Raoul slapped a hand onto the flames on Tracks' hood. The debate and insults picked up, leaving him and Spike trying to figure out if they really were arguing or if it was just friendly banter-

It could have been a coincidence. This guy's face was different but Raf knew he wasn't the only one who thought he was familiar. He looked over to see Jack staring at a very shiny red sports car, a lamborghini maybe, that was parked a few yards away. As both boys watched, the right mirror twitched, almost as if the vehicle could feel their gaze and had turned it's mirror to get a better look at them. Anyone else would have assumed they were imagining things but the children knew better. 

Jack glanced away, face bored as if he hadn't noticed, and gave Raf a look. Eyes scanning around like he was people watching, the youngest took note of the yellow lamborghini a little farther away and a fancy blue and white speedster in the shadow of an alley. The rest of the cars looked common.

Humming, Raf murmured quietly enough that Miko and Jack could barely hear him, “Red, Yellow, Golden blue.” 

Miko purposefully stared at the dancer as if his little sing-song hadn't meant anything and the eldest made no response although they understood what he'd been trying to say. The Twins were red and yellow, Mirage was a blue and white bot with gold optics. He could be wrong of course, but there was at least one Cybertronian in the plaza. Raf leaned over from the bench he was sitting on and asked Miko if he could have one of her drawings. 

She handed over one with a detailed sketch of a Cybertronian engine and Jack gave him the last dollar he had with him. Wrapping the paper around the money, Rafael walked up to the hat lying on the ground and dropped them in, making sure the street dancer saw who'd done it and then went back to the others. 

It was funny how every universe, if there was more than one of them, they eventually found each other. Coincidence seemed to be one of Primus' favorite ways of pushing them together. Strange how Miko managed to find the one small town Jack had lived in, the same place Raf had lived for so many years without knowing his oldest best friend was several blocks away. And all of it just a few miles from the Autobots base. 

And they had stopped in the one plaza of the city where someone who could be Raoul was.

Movement slowing, the teen finished as the song on his boombox ended and he flicked it off. The few people who had also been watching moved away when it was clear the boy was done. He picked up the hat and fished out the paper, staring for a long moment at what would have looked like just a complex design to any ordinary human. Putting away the money, the boy strolled a little closer and called over to them. 

“Nice drawing. Are you the artist Glasses?” A smirk slid across his face, dark eyes filled with mirth as the other children grinned at Chip's old nickname. They'd found Raoul.

Raf shook his head and gestured towards Miko, “She made it.”

“Most people don't know these kinds of engines.” The boy tipped his chin at her, eyes moving to study Jack. Surprise rushed through his expression before disappearing as he realized all of them were here and his cocky attitude returned. Matching his grin, Miko walked over and stopped right in front of him, looking up with hands on her hips. 

“Well we're not 'most people'. Want to have an adventure?”

None of them noticed their guardians hurrying back around the square while trying not to draw attention to themselves. Arcee managed to get ahead, being the smallest. The Autobots headed straight for the suspicious vehicles the kids had noticed earlier. They'd finally managed to get a lock on the signals.

Raoul cocked his head, amusement clear and challenge in his posture, “Sister, what if I got enough adventure already?”

Engine revs made the four aware of the three guardians. As Arcee stopped right behind the children, Bumblebee put himself between the sports vehicles and the kids with his engine growling threateningly. Suddenly, the empty red lambo came to life, pulling forward towards the yellow bot with a happy shout.

“Bee! When did you get here?!” Gently tapping his front against the striped car's bumper in greeting, the lambo bounced in place. Startled at the unknown who turned out to be a friend, Bumblebee's growl petered out while Raoul face-palmed and the gold twin to the carnelian one hissed loudly. 

“You moron! Stop talking around the humans!”

The blue and white race car pulled out of the alley and slid towards them as Bulkhead stopped and the Autobots jumped to the comm links to continue the conversation before a pedestrian noticed the driver-less vehicles moving or talking. Chuckling as the street dancer glared at Sideswipe, Jack grinned playfully. 

“Still house training them, huh? Or just him?” His question was unanswered as Raoul just pulling a penny out of his pocket and threw it at the cheerful red bot with a glare. Still smirking, Miko waited until the dancer turned back to them before gaining his attention.

“So, about that adventure.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Raoul (G1): A Hispanic teen with a New Jersey accent and a hell of an attitude. Giant metal aliens don't really phase the once car thief, even when they're trying to kill him. And nobody messes with his "main machine" Tracks or they have to deal with a pretty pissed off street punk. When he's not working at the auto body shop, he's dancing at a street corner with the "Bop Crew" or roaming the city with Tracks.
> 
> Grimlock (G1): T-rex and Leader of the Dinobots, Grimlock is arrogant, strong, and incredibly fierce. But he's not the smartest bot around. Tends to view force as the solution instead of talking things out, believes he should be in charge, and in dino-mode, he can breath fire. He doesn't always agree with Optimus and really likes crushing Decepticons.
> 
> Red Alert (G1): In charge of the security of the Ark, the lamborghini takes Autobot safety to the next level. Unfortunately, he sometimes takes it a little too far and tends to be suspicious of everything. He trusts Inferno above everyone else.
> 
> Hot Shot (Universe Unknown): A bot who in some universes is a gruff warrior and responsible officer with a 'no nonsense' attitude and in others he's a young, overconfident, and eager fighter who has trouble focusing but is loyal to the core.
> 
> Gizmo (MTMTE): A mech who transforms into a Cybertronian dune buggy. Mostly known for creating the holomatter projector.
> 
> Astoria Carlton-Ritz (G1): A spoiled rich girl who inherited her father's tech company since his passing. Snobbish and self-centered, the brunette has the strange ability to jinx technology just by being nearby. She likes to be around Powerglide but they usually end up fighting, insulting, and bickering at one another.


	3. Arc Three: Visions of the Past

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had the last two chapters planned out all nice and neat, and then I went back to watch the episodes and make sure the plot was in the right order and my idea wildly derailed, so this took a little longer than I originally planned. It's still only four chapters total.
> 
> Also, where the multiverse theory is concerned, there are thousands of universes where the Cybertronians exist. So the four humans have been through many, most of which we outside the multiverse have never seen or heard of.

There was high-toned beeping from the monitor. It mixed with June shouting at Ratchet and the medic arguing back. A loud crash entered the fray as Bee punched the wall in frustration and ill-concealed panic. 

Raf lay on the gurney with paler than usual skin and loud raspy breath.

Jumbled noises of disarray and yelling felt strangely distant to Miko's ears as she stared at the twelve year old. He wasn't just a child, he was a child with the mind of an old friend that had went through several lifetimes with her. 'That's Chip,' she told herself. 

It wouldn't be the first time she'd seen him die. There had been worse ones, where one or the other had gone with a large amount of pain cutting their lives short. Bloody times, where a bot hadn't been quick enough and humans were just too fragile. 

But Miko was no stranger to emergencies. In silence, she helped Jack attach sensors over his heart and lungs. June almost immediately undid their work and started to pack things up.

“Jack, help me move him to the car. We have to get him to the hospital.”

“Those doctor of yours can't comprehend what's afflicting him! Not without a decade of study.” Ratchet snarled, posture tense and rigid. Raoul spoke up from where he'd been pacing by the screens. 

“Doc's right. So how does a bot usually deal with dark energon poisoning?” The bots froze and turned to stare at the boy, realization dawning over their faces. Miko swallowed hard. They'd never dealt with dark energon before. If it had been in the other universes then it was never mentioned. The four had no idea how to handle it. 

Ratchet vented out slowly with wide optics, “Of course, dark energon. Megatron shot them and he's infected with it. How could I not have seen this! Rafael has been infected with dark energon.”

Raising his voice, Jack leaned over to feel Rafael's temperature and turned to the medic, “Okay, yes. But how do you guys deal with it?!”

“We must expel it and fast. I need energon!” He called out to the others. Immediately getting into the mech's space, Bumblebee offered up his arm so Ratchet could take some of his. Miko tapped one foot in impatience, mouth in a thin line and eyes flickering around to everything rapidly. Arcee crouched just a few feet away, waiting to see if she could help. Behind her Mirage stood in blank stony silence. At one time, the female would have yelled at him 'What's wrong with you?! Don't you care?!' but she knew him well enough to know that closing himself off was just his way of coping. 

“I thought you said it was poisonous to humans?!” June stared at the ambulance with large worried eyes although she remained calm. She'd been through emergencies too. It was her job. Ratchet answered her distractedly, plugging the energon container into the medical chamber.

“Under normal circumstances, but it should counteract the dark energon and cancel them both out.”

June's hands were balled into fists, too much tension because she was out of her league. Her son was clenching his jaw tightly, skin stretched over his cheekbones and eyes shadowed while Raoul continued to pace above them. A part of Miko's mind made a note that later they should get the Doc and Miss Darby to compare notes on repairs, human or otherwise. They should have done it sooner. 

She wished Bulkhead were here. She wished he, Prime, and the Twins hadn't had to go back to get that stolen power source. Although, Miko half wished she were there too just to get some revenge. The Decepticons didn't scare her anymore. Not after seeing the worst of them and even surviving it a time or two. 

Across the medbay, Raoul's dark eyes caught hers and he gave a slight nod. Yes, they'd get back at the Cons later. Right now there was work to be done. 

“Quickly now, I need him in here.” Pushing the door open, Ratchet hurried them into the chamber and started it up. The humans swiftly rolled the gurney inside and got out of the way, watching silently as the machine powered on. A deep hum left a tang in the air, one the girl recognized from energon cannons 'Hide had showed her. It was almost a taste, almost a smell, but really more of a feeling like electricity coating the bones and washing over the skin. Even though they weren't directly in contact the organics could still feel it's presence.

Light burst into existence inside the cylinder, shielding Raf from their eyes as they instinctively covered them. When it finally dimmed and the door slid open, everyone rushed in. Ratchet hissed at them not to crowd but fell silent as the small human cracked open his eyes. 

“Guys....?” A faint whisper as the brown orbs opened wider and took in their fuzzy appearances. Miko smirked as Miss Darby pushed the glasses onto his face so he could see clearly.

“How are you feeling kiddo?” 

The relief washed through the room in calming waves, their shoulders sagging and deep vents flowing out. Bee buzzed and clicked at the boy happily. All the girl could catch was a few names and the phrase 'it's okay'. Unfortunately, the reprieve only lasted until Arcee called the others to ask if they were ready for pickup and everyone learned Optimus had gone off to fight Megatron alone. 

Yelling from Ratchet distracted the other bots while the kids traded exasperated looks. Banging his head gently on the railing, Raoul moaned, “Why damnit, why does he have to be such a freakin' pain in the aft martyr?”

Jack just took a deep breath and hid his face in his hands for a moment. A bellow from the medic startled them as he roared at the Twins and Bulkhead, “WHY did you let him go alone?!!”

“We tried arguing with him.” Sideswipe's brisk voice answered from the comms. Sunstreaker continued flatly, “He gave us a direct order.”

“Aurrgh!” Dark gray servos twitched like he was strangling the Prime in question. “Get back here now and go save his aft before I weld it to the base floor!” Rafael chuckled quietly as the kids traded amused looks, glad to hear a long familiar threat that reminded them of old and fond memories. They hid their grins as June came over to hand the youngest some water to sip which he took gladly. All the humans stood back and watched as the fighters quickly came into base and headed back through the ground bridge to rescue Optimus. Silence descended, save for the heart monitor on Raf, as they waited. Arcee's voice broke the tension.

“There's..... dark energon, coming out of a volcano.” Her voice faded a little as the sounds of fighting rose. Everyone on base exchanged horrified looks as the implication of her words sunk in. 

“Keep the bridge open! We're coming through!” Sideswipe yelled. 

Almost as soon as he said that, all the bots stormed back into base. Scorch marks, scratches, and dents adorning them while Optimus brought up the rear. Ratchet powered down the bridge and looked ready to rip the Prime a new one but settled instead for delivering the more pressing question with a lethally calm tone. “Why was dark energon coming from the ground?”

“I do not know Ratchet. And I fear we must find out soon.”Optimus sighed, not fighting as the medic forcibly moved him to a berth so he could get patched up. He smiled at Raf when he saw the boy was awake and doing much better than he had been. Giving a small grin back, the youngest tried to sneakily reach over toward the laptop Raoul had been sliding toward him. They froze when June stomped by.

The single mother had had enough. “Well I wish you luck with that but the children are coming with me and they are going home. Now. All of you, in the car.” 

She pulled the sensors off of Raf, grabbing his arm and tugging him toward the car even as he dug his feet in. Immediate sounds of protest came from the older three. Jack stiffened where he was sitting on the steps while Raoul just rolled his eyes and Miko glared. Standing shakily, the Autobot leader placed a servo above his spark chamber. “I deeply regret endangering them Miss Darby. Their safety is one of our highest priorities. And they are safe in this base.”

“Optimus, I respect you deeply.” June closed her eyes and took a deep breath, the distraction allowing Raf to slip his wrist out of her hand, although she grabbed it again without hesitation, “But they are children. They should be worrying about grades, prom dates, pimples. Not their own survival.”

Mouth open to retort, Miko nearly bit her own tongue to keep from shouting. Children indeed. Nudging her with his foot, Jack gave her a warning look and the girl stiffly locked her limbs into a rigid stance, teeth clamped down tightly. Rage and insulted pride warred with the knowledge that June didn't know any better. That didn't stop her from mentally screaming in vexation.

'You think I don't know what it feels like?! You think I don't know what if feels like to be a mother worried for her son?!' 

Carly dug up every ounce of self-control she had, bottling the anger at the Decepticons so she wouldn't lash out at Miss Darby who didn't deserve it. 'Do you think we haven't earned the right to make our own choices when we've been through hell so many times?! I am an adult!' 

Instead, she glowered when June turned to them, “Jack, Miko, Raoul, in the car.”

“Eighteen ma'am.” Raoul turned away to study the screens. Everyone else thought he was doing it so he wouldn't have to look at her. The children knew it was because he could actually read the Cybertronian and was planning. “If my mother can't make me do anything, neither can you.”

Miko's face twitched, wanting to darken into a furious expression which she hurried to smooth out when the nurse looked to her. “You're not my mother and we made the choice to be here.”

“You're not eighteen and you're going home.” June replied, authority thick in her voice. 

“Miko...” Bulkhead started.

Eyes flashing, Mikaela turned on him, “You're not either. This is our choice to help. No one elses.” The big ex-wrecker leaned back in surprise, hearing something new underscore the girl's words. For a second, it had almost sounded like someone else had been speaking. It had been Miko's voice but with a cold and mature determination that hadn't been there before. 

Expression turning mulish, the woman realized she wasn't going to win that battle and looked at her son. “Jack.”

Silence reigned as every optic and eye looked at the dark-haired teen. Slumped against the railing, he merely stared sadly back at his mother. Blue eyes begged her to understand he was sorry. Sorry she ended up being his mother and getting dragged into this, sorry he hadn't been able to keep her oblivious, sorry he missed those other lives with other parents he loved as much as he loved her, sorry his missed his original dad and would give almost anything to see him again. Sorry sorry sorry sorry sorry......

“We made our choice.” He whispered. 

Hurt flashed through her own eyes, just a shade darker than his own and almost lavender instead of blue. Still keeping Raf next to her, the mother turned sharply, intent of putting at least the twelve year old in the car when Raoul called out. He was still turned away from them but was now looking at the television.

“I wouldn't do that.” The tv remote was waved over his shoulder as he gestured at them to come look. “Big Rig's got it right, it's safer in here.”

On the screen, a newscaster warned everyone about global earthquakes that had struck only moments before. Wildfires in Australia, tsunami waves battering Canada's coast, electromagnetic power surges taking out electricity in Europe..... Raoul flipped to the local news. Images of tornadoes tearing across the scrub lands filled the tv screen. A warning suggested that all residents of Nevada and the surrounding states stay indoors and as close to ground as possible.

Raf pulled away to go sit with the other kids and grabbed his computer, “Looks like we stay here then.”  
.  
.  
.  
“-could be unstoppable!” Megatron exclaimed, anticipation giddy in his spark. Here at last was power that no Autobot, no Prime, could defeat. Violet optics glinting with excitement, he raised a servo to make his point. “No force in this universe could stand in the way.”

“Arrogant wyrm!” Bellowed Unicron, the vision in the smoke seeming to grow bigger with his annoyance. The smell of burning things and acid strengthened while the ground sent heated waves underfoot.

“Ah, My Lord Unicron-”

The Unmaker appeared to narrow his optics and interrupted the gladiator, “I have no need of your service! You who cannot even destroy a Prime!” Pain blossomed in Megatron's spark as the dark energon seemed to grow and burn through his energon veins. He dropped to one knee with a startled cry as he felt Unicron tearing through his mind, looking for the location of Optimus. 

And disgust when he realized Megatron did not know. “Useless!” The Chaos Maker roared, the screaming of corrupted sparks and empty voids. An echo pulsing through his mind and causing Megatron to hiss at the sudden pain. 

But as Unicron flipped through Megatron's memories in search of something useful, he paused at a face. The human boy, Jack, when the Decepticon was bound in the rocks of the energon mine and the human could have finished him off with the drill but chose not to. Pure unfiltered rage sang through the mech's body, flowing from Unicron, as the god stared at that face. 

“Him.” He hissed, “Not only have you allowed a Prime to live but the boy does too!”

“I don't understand-” Megatron started, confused as to why someone as great as Unicron would care for one insignificant child. Granted, a human who had surprised him, but an organic insect nonetheless. 

“Meddlesome! He is here! And possibly the others.” Unicron seemed to be speaking aloud to himself. Only as he pulled away from Megatron's mind did he turn his attention back to the mech who had pledged service to him. “I will deal with this myself!”

With that, he seemed to fade back into smoke and the open volcano cleared, the Unmaker's presence fading to a background hum. 

A moment of long silence passed. Slowly standing again, the Decepticon leader gazed into the simmering lava below. His fist clenched. Disbelief and fury twined through his thoughts. How dare he. How dare Unicron just turn away as if he were nothing. Insignificant. A howl built up and echoed through the crater as Megatron thundered his outrage. He was MEGATRON! No one, not even a god, could brush him aside as insignificant!

Taking to the sky, he started to plot. First thing to do would be to destroy Unicron. No one else was allowed to conquer earth. No one else was allowed to kill Optimus Prime. That was his task. Second would be to find out why Unicron was interested in the human child. 

Third was to destroy them and rule.  
.  
.  
.  
Standing at one of the earthquake epicenters, Optimus scanned the soil closest to the fault line before sending the results to base and tucking the scanner away. Ratchet must have gotten the results as his voice came across the comm link. “This matches the samples the others have gotten. Miniscule traces of dark energon. It seems the earth itself is an extension of Unicron, especially at the epicenters.”

“Are the others finished?” The Prime kept a wary optic out as he moved through the maze of stones. 

A brief bit of static and then a scuffle in the background, “Yes. Put that down Sideswipe! I swear to-........ Yes, they're here. You're the last one. Sending a bridge now.”

Before the medic could even finish his sentence, something big and heavy crashed into the Prime without warning. He was sent flying back, smashing against the rock and falling onto his front. Grunting, the blue and red mech quickly straightened only to be grabbed around the neck. A tall stone mech with violet optics bared his sharp denta as Optimus struggled to be released. “Unicron.....”

“Last of the Primes” Thundered a deep voice. It seemed to echo and multiply, bouncing off the cliff side. The avatar of Unicron clenched his fist, denting the Prime's neck cables. “I am going to destroy you, so no taint of Primus shall walk this planet.”

Optimus twisted, his blade cutting through the arm and letting go. He landed on his feet and lunged forward, cutting apart the stone creature. Even as he did so, another appeared behind him. It slammed him into the ground. 

“I am going to destroy you. But first, are you in communication with the other Autobots?” 

The surprise was enough to get Optimus to still for a few seconds until Unicron continued. “Let the boy with the dark helm and blue optics hear my words. I know you are here boy! I will come for you and any others who reside in this universe. And when you die you can tell the Thirteen that I rule here. You will not stop me!”

Back at base, the bots collectively turned to the children who had paled. Even Raoul, whose skin was darker than the others, looked a bit sick. Jack stared blankly at the screen while Miss Darby glanced at everyone confused. “What is he talking about? Jack? He can't be talking about Jack!”

Ratchet broke out of his reverie first. “All of you, go help Optimus. He's being overwhelmed by Unicron's manifestations!” 

The bots quickly ran through the ground bridge, leaving the old medic to give the humans a weary look. “Now might be a good time to speak up if you have something to say.” Raf bit his lip and fidgeted while the others all glanced at each other, gauging how they wanted to play this. Whatever their choice, it was interrupted by the Autobot leader ordering the others. 

“No! Return to base! I'm afraid he will be able to track me regardless of where I go.” The sounds of blaster fire and cracking rocks buzzed through the comm links along with grunts and swears as people took hits. 

Bulkhead was the first to disagree, “Sorry Boss but we're not leaving you.”

“Optimus! He's stronger at the epicenters like Ratchet said!” Jack got closer to the screen to be more easily heard. “If you get back to base it will take him awhile to find you.” The Prime wasn't given a chance to reply as Unicron bellowed in multiple voices. 

“YOU! I hear you! You and the others will perish if I have to destroy you in every universe!”

Startling backwards, Jack bumped into the railing while Miko wrapped her hands around the small stunguns in her pockets. Raoul let out a frustrated hiss, “Frag it man, he's already screwed us over. Nothing to do about it now.”

“Fine.” Ignoring Ratchet and June's bewildered expressions, Jack raised his voice, “Optimus, make sure he can hear this. Unicron, even if you killed me I couldn't tell the Thirteen anything! They do whatever the hell they want and I have no control over contact with them! And HOW did you know I was here? I don't look or sound anything like I did before!”

Yells of disbelief from the other bots came over the comms. June gasped in surprise at her sons words but Unicron's voices drowned them all out. “They may give you a new body but your essence remains the same. Prepare for your death!”

“Yeah yeah, very dramatic.” Miko spat, coming to stand next to her friend, “Go play in a black hole Unicron.”

A roar of outrage answered her while Optimus called for everyone to fall back. The sounds of fighting got louder as the Autobots transformed to drive. Exclamations of horror and surprise had everyone at base tensing up. “Big..... oh holy Primus we're gonna die.” Bumblebee clicked and beeped as Bulkhead yelled at him to look out and the Twins gave identical warcries. Mirage called to the base. “He made a bigger vessel.”

Ratchet hesitated to open the bridge. Thundering steps and noise of battle gave way to a pause as Arcee screamed. “Nooooooo!!”

A deafening crack and crash. “Is everyone there?! What's going on?!” The orange and white mech yelled, a servo hovering over the ground bridge controls. “Somebody answer me!”

One long moment passed before Mirage answered. “Megatron just saved Optimus.”

“What?!” The humans chimed in with Ratchet.

“He did.” Sunstreaker agreed in a hollow tone. It was quiet for a few seconds before the Decepticon leader himself spoke.

“Optimus. I believe it would be mutually beneficial if we put aside our little disagreement and worked together to rid this world of Unicron.” The warlords voice caused Rafael to freeze, eyes wide and staring coldly at the screens. Miko's face twisted while June shuddered. She'd never heard Megatron speak before and his tone set off warning signs in her head. “Autobot, Decepticon, factions do not matter when such a large threat will destroy us all.”

Arcee snarled suspiciously, “Okay, so why not destroy him yourself?” A beat of nothing before Optimus replied.

“Because I have the Matrix. Unleashing it's energy on Unicron will stop him.”

“And you need me to guide you to his anti-spark.” Smugness radiated through the large gray mech's voice. “Otherwise you'll run in circles until he crushes you.”

The Twins growled, not liking this idea. Ratchet agreed with the sentiment. “Optimus you cannot be serious! You can't trust him!” Megatron gave a deep chuckle at the medics words even as the Autobot leader sighed. 

“I am not trusting him Ratchet.” His next words were for his enemy, “But how long will this temporary peace last?”

“As long as mutually beneficial.”

Bulkhead smacked his servos together, “And afterwords?”

A rumbling laugh, “I will conquer earth. My way.”

“Brutal honesty from a Decepticon?” Still wanting to keep as far away from the giant mech as possible, Arcee voiced her opinion.

“I will buy you time to make your decision.” The rumble of boulders shifting alerted those on base that Unicron was far from resting. As Ratchet opened the bridge to allow everyone back, June turned to her son and his friends. “Jackson Darby, I want answers and I want them now. What in the world is going on and why does an ancient......”

She paused, searching for the right words. With a grimace, Raf deadpanned for her, “Dark god of Chaos and Devourer of the Universe.”

“Yes, that. Why does he think he knows you?!” Terror and fear had the mother trying desperately to deny her son had anything to do with this mess. Jack winced. Sighing, Raoul looked at the others. 

“Like I said, we're already screwed. May as well quite denying.”

Miko huffed, crossing her arms as she leaned against the railing, “Don't worry Miss Darby. We'll explain as soon as all the bots are here.” She didn't have to wait long. Even as the girl spoke, the last of the Autobots hurried out of the ground bridge and it was shut down. A cacophony of voices barraged everyone's audios and ears. 

“Are we really working with bucket head-”

“-shoot us in the back while we're trying to kill Unicron.”

“I agree with Sideswipe. We can't trust him.”

“We don't need him!”

“-wanna know why the Pit Jack said that stuff to Unicron.”

All of them fell silent as Optimus raised his servos to quiet them and Bulkhead's question as more easily heard. Every optic looked at one another before turning to the kids. Said humans stared back calmly. The Prime sighed. “That is a good inquiry. Jack?”

The dark-haired boy sighed and opened his mouth to speak but Miko placed a hand on his shoulder. “Don't worry. I got this.”

She took a deep breath and then started with a rush. “We are reincarnated. We were asked by Primus to come help the Autobots, although all Cybertronians in general too, in the different universes. In our original lives the war ended, a lot of the bots we knew died, then Unicron showed up as a star devouring planet and we sorta maybe helped defeat him. Then we kinda died because humans have to die sometime. And we agreed to the deal and have been reincarnated several times over. So we've fought against Unicron before although it's been awhile and we didn't know he would be able to recognize us. The End.”

Dead silence. 

Jack face-palmed, “Miko!”

“What!?” She gave him a look, “I just explained everything in thirty seconds. We don't have a lot of time right now in case you haven't noticed!”

“That... that is impossible.” Ratchet sounded dazed and not a little bit incredulous.

Bumblebee whirred quietly, “...Original lives?”

“Oh, and we also don't have time for the whole 'I don't believe this, your crazy' game. So we're going to jump right over to how to deal with Unicron.” The Asian teen continued calmly. 

Raf spoke up, “You can't kill a multidimensional being Optimus. All you can do is destroy his body and cut off his link to this universe.”

The bots were openly staring, mouths ajar and optics too wide as they tried to make sense of what the children were talking about. June looked terribly lost, staring at Jack and waiting for him to say something along the lines of this all being a strange and terribly timed joke. The Prime reset his optics twice before latching on to something he could more easily understand. “Putting the reincarnation to the side and for further discussion, you seem knowledgeable about Unicron.”

“Unfortunately yes.” Brushing his hair out of his eyes, Jack sighed. “There's three ways to cut off his link to this universe that we know of. One, pushing him into a black hole which isn't feasible right now. Two, waking up Primus to fight him but we can't do that and even if we did, Unicron would stretch and Earth would be destroyed.”

Looking aggravated with this entire situation, Raoul tacked on, “Last option is using the Matrix. Looks like ya gotta work with old Bucket head anyways.”  
.  
.  
.  
Ratchet tried to shoo the humans out of the command center as the bridge was opened to let the leader of the Decepticons into their base. June agreed with him about keeping out of sight but the four younger humans simultaneously said “NO.”

“It is not safe.” The old war veteran growled, trying to physically push them towards the hall. They just dodged his servos. Miko pulled a strange little gun out of her pocket and flicked a switch on it so it was set to human instead of cybertronian. When Ratchet reached for her, she zapped his hand. “Ow! Hey!”

“What's he gonna do when all you guys are here?” She demanded hotly as the medic inspected his servo. “It's not like he's gonna risk trying to kill us when it was his idea to work together in the first place.”

Sideswipe leaned against the computer terminals, conveniently placing himself between the ground bridge and the kids. “Yeah Doc. And even if he did, we're not going to let it happen.” Flashing his denta, the red lambo gave a feral grin. The medic did not appear pleased with this but was saved from retorting as Raoul snorted loudly. 

“Megs ain't the scariest things I've seen. He can suck my-”

Jack slapped a hand over his mouth. “Language!”

“Once a street punk, always a street punk.” Miko snickered. “What's your problem Jack? Raf's the youngest and he's heard worse. I've said worse.” That idea seemed to amuse her. Peering carefully at his mother, Jack tensed at how her eyebrows went up. The minor argument was ended as every bot froze, turning towards the bridge. 

“Remember that universe where Megs looked like he had antlers?” Miko whispered to Raf. Mirage, standing close by, made a strangled noise at her comment. 

The twelve year old looked over at her and whispered back, “The one where everyone was after the minicons and didn't really try to kill the humans?”

“Yup.”

“Yeah.” Rafael sighed. “That was nice.”

The heavy weight of tension settled in the room as Megatron stalked in. It wasn't a walk. There was something predatory about his movements, as if at any second he would be ready to lunge forward and strike. Loud thumps crunched against the metal floor with each step as he moved closer. June's eyes widened, surprised to see someone taller than Optimus. Everyone else just tracked him with cold optics and eyes. A deep entertained and menacing tone flowed out with his words. 

“So this is were you have been hiding from me.” The huge mech chuckled, crimson optics taking in what little tech the Autobots had and their wary expressions, “Quaint.” 

-hurry up Soundwave!” The giant gray titan snarled, burning red optics glaring at the human in the wheelchair. “Get the information from him before those stupid Autobots show up.” Chip couldn't move, fear binding him. Even if he could have thought coherently he couldn't walk. He only hoped Spike and Bumblebee had gotten his message. Leaning down, the blue mech with a visor reached a hand towards Chip-

-he was holding on to the statue as tightly as he could. Gravity and wind tugged as his back. “Give me the cube, boy, and maybe I'll let you live to be my pet.” No no no no no. Megatron couldn't have the cube. Everything would be lost if he did. Sweat gathered under Sam's fingers and he almost slipped away from the stone before grasping it again. “Never!” A pause and a dark chuckle. “Oh, so unwise.” A whoosh of displaced air and then something crashed against the statue, sending Sam out into open space and his certain death-

Then he caught sight of the children. “You're looking much better than the last time we met little one. Humans, resilient.”

Rafael's brown eyes hardened and he hissed aloud with more venom than the bots had heard from him before. “You'd be surprised.”

-chasing the little red-haired organic around the empty factory. Megatron swiped and missed as the little girl slid through a hole in the wall. Before the giant mech could bring it down and continue, the female sniper up on the catwalk fired at the spaces between his armor. He roared at the unexpected injury, whirling around to glare at the human woman. “Who are you to interfere?!” The female who had been tracking Megatron and Sari for the last three hours sneered at him. “Don't you have something better to do than scare children?” She brushed brunette strands out of her face and bolted for the exit with the Decepticon leader at her heels. The woman who had once been called Carly really hoped the Autobots showed up soon so she could disappear without them noticing her-

Raising an optic ridge at the twelve year old's defiance, he turned to Optimus and Jack. “On that note, I have to wonder what exactly you've done to gain Unicron's notice boy.”

Jack seemed puzzled and looked at the bots as if he had no idea what Megatron was talking about. Practice made perfect and they'd nailed down the 'I have no idea' look lifetimes ago. Miko snorted, “Dude, he's been in stasis for.... billions of years?”

“Millenia.” Mirage corrected lightly and Miko nodded.

“Yeah. He's been out forever and we're not even twenty yet. He's probably mixed up.”

Raoul snorted, “Unicorn's senile. Isn't that great.”

“Unicron!” Growling, Ratchet corrected him. He knew the kid had done that on purpose. Although he had to give them props. They were good at this. He would have believed it if he hadn't heard the yelling between Jack and Unicron himself. The warlord glared at them suspiciously. Megatron looked only partially convinced but couldn't fault them. Technically, Unicron's hatred of the boy made no sense. The matter would have to wait until later then. He would find out the truth in his own time. 

“Very well. I assume we are ready then?” He took a step forward and the Autobots immediately brought out their weapons, blasters charged and humming. But Raoul's reaction was the most interesting. 

-sharp tipped servos dug into his leg and Raoul screamed automatically. “I'll ask one more time insect. Where are the Autobots hiding that weapon?” The cold cruel tones sent bolts of fury through the boy. Megs could do all the damage he wanted. No one was gonna make him speak. Raoul gasped, trying to draw air into his lungs and lifted his head to glare the the silver and red behemoth. A hysterical razor-sharp grin played across his face. Wouldn't be the first time Megs had his hands around him. And last time he's gotten away with just bruises. “I don't....” he huffed as the warlord leaned closer to hear him “I don't have to tell you shit old man!” Bringing up a can of spray paint he'd been hiding behind his back, Raoul sprayed it across the mech's face. He howled in pain as the acidic liquid scarred his optics. Megatron's grip loosened enough for Raoul to scramble up and start running-

Raoul snarled, lips curling over his teeth and a deep growl rumbling from his throat. The others kids startled, not expecting it and giving him worried looks. The warlord just narrowed his optics before Optimus spoke.

“I must speak with Jack before we leave. Autobots, gather as many weapons as you can.” 

As the Prime drew Jack aside to speak with him, Miko tapped Sideswipe on the arm to get his and his brother's attention. She pulled them over to where she'd hidden some home-made explosives among Ratchet's dust covered crates. The medic glared at her when he saw what was there and the Twins quickly had a whispered conversation on what type of explosives they were and everything. Miko looked far too happy to give them to the Twins. Raoul and Raf traded looks.

“Autobots.” Optimus called, gathering everyone's attention as they lined up in front of the ground bridge. “It's time to roll out. Open the ground bridge please Ratchet.”

The kids waved at their guardians as the swirling vortex opened and silently wished them luck. June gripped her son's shoulders, worry in her eyes as Raoul put a fist over his chest and saluted them. The bots nodded and gave small smiles back. Yelling before anyone could leave, Miko waved a hand at Megatron, hazel eyes serious. 

“Hey you! If all of them don't come back, I'm going to find a way to put Cerium Disulfide in your tank!”

As the Autobots blanched at the mere thought of that poison melting someone from the inside out, Megatron laughed, as raucous as a crow and three times as loud. “I would love to see how you manage that little human.”

With that, the Cybertronians disappeared through the bridge and into Unicron himself, leaving the humans and Ratchet to only wait and hope.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Flashback list in order is: Chip Chase/Raf, Sam/Jack, followed by Carly/Miko, and Raoul. No matter what universe, Raoul never uses the name he's born with and makes people call him Raoul.  
> Also, these four are not the main humans in every universe and often just keep an eye on things while jumping in if people need help (like Carly/Mikaela/Miko did in the Animated universe, and Raf and Miko in Armada).


	4. Arc Four: Where Is the Beginning and End?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I said four chapters. Due to discussion with my sister, she insisted on five because she wants something fun at the end. It shall be five.  
> Carly's full name is never mentioned in G1, so I used her voice actor's name.  
> Poor Optimus didn't realize exactly what he'd done when he gave Jack the key. And Miko and Raoul get snippy when the situations are tense.

The wait was practically killing them. And since most actually remembered dying they knew what they were talking about.

Flopped backward on the couch with his eyes closed, Raoul put an arm over his face and was dead to the world. Nobody knew where his mind was and no one wanted to actually go over to ask him. Raf was venting his stress by continually hacking the Decepticon ship. He would get kicked out in a few seconds by Soundwave before getting in again and the game would continue. If the Communications Officer didn't have a vendetta against the boy within the hour, the other children would be surprised. Having gone to fix herself some tea, June returned and settled on a chair near Raf. She sipped her drink absentmindedly and stared into space.

Ratchet paced back and forth, picking up broken tools and spending a moment fixing them before moving on because he could not sit still. Every other few minutes he would circle around to his crates of supplies and start to search for whatever else Miko had hidden in there. So far, all he'd found was half-finished projects and materials he knew weren't his.

The girl herself was cross-legged near the console. Nuts, bolts, screws, wire and strangely shaped metal pieces were scattered around her as she built another stungun. When the medic looked ready to take away her tools, she glared hard enough to peel his paint. Deciding the argument wasn't worth it, he'd backed off. Sighing, the thin female looked over at Jack. He was staring at the screen above her head and leaning against the railing with a heavy expression on his face. The boy was so still she would have thought him a statue except for the barely perceptible rise and fall of his chest as he breathed. 

The bots were too far down now and interference meant they couldn't contact base until the job was done and they got closer to the surface.

Keys clacking on Rafael's computer and the thrum of machinery were the only sounds on base. If a clock started ticking, Miko was going to shoot it. Pausing in her work, the girl narrowed her eyes at Jack. She set her tweezers and mini-welder down before standing. 

“Hey.” She greeted. When he didn't look at her, she pouted, “Marco... Polo..... Jack.” No response. That wasn't good. Miko scowled and tried again. “Spike.”

Jack continued staring at the screen, not even noticing the girl a foot to his left. If he wasn't answering to his current or first name then something was wrong. Hazel eyes narrowed at the grim set of his jaw, sweat gathering along his hairline, and the way his skin had an ashen tint. Darby's left hand was quivering almost imperceptibly. Carly took a slow step back so she wasn't in his space, a necessary precaution for someone who knew how to fire a gun and carried a knife, before loudly tapping her fingernails on the railing. “Charles?.....Sam?”

Finally a sign of life. At that last name, the dark-haired teen flinched a tiny bit and looked over at her with a watery smile. “Hi 'Kaela.”

Okay. This was really not good. Jack must have been remembering being Sam if he'd forgotten that her name was Miko now. Ratchet glanced over but ignored their conversation to give the illusion of privacy. It wasn't his fault Cybertronians had such good hearing. “Sooooo.... what's wrong?” She started suspiciously, “'cause you look like your about to puke or something.”

In wordless reply, the boy held up his right hand from where it had been out of sight behind his back. Clenched in shaking fingers, a flat metal contraption of twisting lines and blue energon glowed softly. That immediately answered the question of why Jack was a mess of nerves. He hated touching Cybertronian artifacts unless absolutely assured they weren't going to do anything to him. It was all that damned cube's fault. Mikaela winced, her shoulders automatically hunching as she gave it a wary look. 

“That's either some funky Cybertronian pendant or an artifact of some sort. Not a weapon, right?”

“I don't think so. Optimus tried to tell me it was the key to the ground bridge controls.” Jack huffed in quivery amusement as he put his hand down. The boy didn't even want to look at what he was holding right now. Ratchet glanced sharply at the pair, hearing their words, and gasped at seeing the relic. 

Lips thinning, the girl held out a hand, “Do you want me to hold it? You could set it down you know.” Jack shook his head, grimacing. 

“He asked me to keep it safe for him.”

“That.... That's the key to Vector Sigma!” The medic exclaimed, awe and worry taking over his usually gruff tones. He came closer and leaned down to get a better look. “That is one of Cybertron's greatest relics!”

Lifting his head a little, Raoul peered over at them tiredly, “That super computer? That one that knows stuff. Why would Prime give him the key to it?” Rafael set his computer aside, allowing Soundwave enough time to try to send him a virus, and shut it down before the Decepticon could damage anything. The youngest scrambled over to get a good look at what Jack was holding. Ratchet gave Raoul a startled and confused look.

“How do you know..... Right. Never mind.”

Miko bit her lip and gently gave a suggestion, “You could put it in your pocket. I'd fit.” Jack turned wide blue eyes on her and she licked her lips nervously before retreating. “I'm gonna get a bag. Just a second.” The girl moved away cautiously, as if she were handling cracked glass. Miss Darby exchanged suspicious expressions with the medic at Miko's soft tones. Miko was not polite, quiet or subtle. She was loud and brash. Why was she acting like Jack was about to go catatonic?

Apparently they were not the only ones who wanted answers. Raoul finally swung his legs down and got up to hunch against the railing. The darker skinned boy flipped his hair out of his face and gave the key a bored look before focusing back on Jack. “Dude, what's your deal?” 

“Nothing.”

His words weren't quite believable with the rough quality of his voice and tense body language. Ratchet frowned at how dilated the boy's eyes were, a sign of stress or fear. Funny, he'd been quite calm when Unicron had threatened to destroy him, yet a small piece of metal had him border-line panicking. 

“Yeah right.” Raoul snorted derisively. He'd been hanging out with Sunstreaker too long and had perfected that flawless noise that was one part bored amusement and three parts 'you're so full of crap'. “You've gotten better at lying but I'm still the pro. What's wrong?”

“He doesn't like touching artifacts. Back off Raoul.” Miko snapped aggressively. Tossing her supplies and tools aside, the girl was hurriedly dumping things out of her backpack and sorting through it with quick movements. 

The street dancer rolled his dark eyes, “Since when?” Rafael looked back and forth silently with his forehead creased in worry. June pursed her lips.

“Since last life.” 

“Okay, what happened?”

Miko yanked a cloth bag from her mess of things and pulled the colored pencils out, straightening with a harsh glare, “Shut. Up. Raoul.” Remaining silent, Jack stared blankly at the ground. His free hand was still trembling. June, recognizing that her son was not okay, came forward and set a soothing hand on his shoulder. 

“Jack? It's okay sweety. Just breath.” She murmured quietly. “Can't you just give it to someone else to hold onto? If it bothers you-”

Ratchet interrupted with a sigh, “The Key imprints itself on a Prime or the holder chosen by a Prime. Optimus gave it to Jack so it imprinted on him. I don't know what would happen if someone else were to touch it. It could shut down until Jack or Optimus are holding it but, I really don't know.” He clenched his fist and turned hopeless optics on the screen, desperately wishing that the others would call and say everything was okay. Miko stomped over before slowing and silently holding the cloth bag open for him. With shaking fingers, the boy dropped the key inside and sighed in relief. His shoulder slumped as he immediately sat on the ground, head lolled back to lean against the railing.

Brows scrunching, the mother gave Ratchet a sharp look and sharper words, “And why would Optimus give Jack the key to this Vector Sigma computer?”

Stale silence and the medic bowed his chevroned helm and stated softly, “Because he's not planning on coming back.”

“Damn martyr. Again.” A mutter in a New York accent.

Rafael picked up his science book and threw it at Raoul, who yelped at the hit. He glared in return but Raf only gave him a dark look. Whirling around to scowl at the oldest boy's snapped comment, the ambulance was distracted by June's next question. “Okay..... And where exactly is this thing? It's on the base, right?” She crossed her arms, lips thinned in worry.

“On Cybertron.” Jack supplied, voice calmer now that he was no longer touching the key. The bag was settled in his lap but as long as it wasn't touching him, he was fine. His blue eyes were still closed as he slumped on the railing. 

Miko sighed and added, “Hidden deep underground and undoubtedly hard to get to.”

“There's probably traps set up to keep people from easily getting to it.” The Esquivel kid added offhandedly, opening a granola bar to munch on. It had been a long day and they all needed to take a break to eat but none of them would leave until the bots got back. The kid's words went through the other's minds for a moment before Ratchet finally reset his optics and just stared. 

“....This is getting unnerving.”

They snickered, snorts of amusement and stressful chuckles breaking out as June looked at how they acted like this was normal. But since they seemed to know what they were doing, she'd let it be for now and wait until things got dangerous before putting her foot down to keep them out of the line of fire. Miko yawned and strolled back to her mess to clean up her tools. A stray thought had her pausing mid-step.

“Wait... Prime lied!” Her exclamation had everyone on base looking over at her, “Optimus lied to you! Not well, but he still tried. Maybe he's not such a lost puppy in this universe after all.” She ignored Ratchet's confused mutter of 'lost puppy?'

Raf swallowed his snack and grinned. “Wow. I didn't know he had it in him.”

The girl threw her head back and laughed, arms wrapped around her stomach. “He totally tried though! Hahahaha! I'm so proud.”

“Careful. Your maternal side is showing.” 

Dropping himself back on the couch, Raoul couldn't help but snark. Wrinkling her nose at him, Miko smirked in return, “Careful. Your street punk is showing.”

Raising her eyebrows, Miss Darby watched the exchange with a suspicious glint in her eyes. Ratchet did as well before edging closer to the silent teen. Jack opened his eyes to look at the white and orange mech and offered a small smile as the others continued to banter. Hesitantly, because he'd never really thought of it before and the idea itself was so strange, Ratchet whispered a question.

“Jack, since you've all lived before, I'll assume you've been adults before.” The boy nodded, expression a lot calmer than earlier, “Has Miko ever.....?”

The human child who was much older than he looked just grimaced and kept his voice low so the others couldn't hear, “Don't ask Miko is she's been a mom. Don't try to get Raf on a ship, the human kind. Don't bring up Tracks around Raoul. And please don't make me carry around a Cybertronian artifact.”

Pausing, the old veteran gazed at the four with new optics, shoving aside all his preconceived notions and venting soundlessly. He was a medic who'd been through a very long war. And one of the first things he'd learned was that there were some topic you just did not broach with people who'd been to the Pits and back. He watched the way Raf settled on the ground with his laptop but kept his back to something solid so he could face the room. Ratchet studied the way Miko rolled with her walk the same way fighters did. How had he missed that? How did he not notice Jack behaving so much like an adult instead of like a normal sixteen year old? Why had no one seen the way Raoul twitched at every unexpected noise but didn't react, as if it was so common for him to jump that he didn't even notice he was doing it? 

Had they been blind to all the little clues that were right there the whole time?

“I don't want to know?” The medic offered as Jack gave a bitter smile this time. 

“You don't want to know.”  
.  
.  
.

“Don't touch my tools!” 

The medic barked sharply as Miko once again started nearing his instruments. She rolled her eyes in frustrated annoyance, tapping booted feet against the floor. “You could at least let me fix them. Raf can help. We know what we're doing Doc.”

Poking his helm up from under ground bridge controls, the mech narrowed frosty blue optics. “I don't care if you're skilled in electronics. Don't touch.”

“Defying orders; one of our better skills.” She shot back at him, admitting defeat for the moment and strolling away. She would wear him down eventually and then he'd see how smart she really was. It was just a matter of time. Settled across the room and taking a short rest by the wall, the Twins snickered at her comeback. 

Raf sighed. They'd been arguing back and forth for twenty minutes now and Miko was far too stubborn to just give up. The kid pulled his book closer and started writing answers. Just because the base was currently in a state of emergency didn't mean they could skip school. Even though they'd been through it over and over and over again, their guardians and June had been insistent that they still couldn't fall behind. Rafael didn't see the point. They already knew all this and they needed to focus on getting Orion back from the Decepticons.

An engine announced Bulkhead's presence as the SUV lurched into the command center and turned towards Ratchet but didn't transform, “Uh... Hey Doc? Think you could take a look at something?”

“Not now Bulkhead. I'm busy. Can't you see that?” The medic waved a gray servo up to gesture at the bridge.

Seeming to shrink at the negative reply, the green wrecker slumped on his axles, “But I have something stuck in my undercarriage. It pokes me when I try to transform.” Ratchet rumbled displeasure in reply while Miko looked over curiously. 

“I can do it Bulk.” Grabbing a flashlight, the teen scampered under Bulkhead and looked upwards to see what the problem was. 

Her guardian nearly rolled back but forced himself not to move, voicing his objection, “Miko, I don't think that's such a good idea. Why don't you let Ratchet handle it?” Coming out of the human kitchen area deeper in base with fruit in hand, Raoul hopped up onto the chair next to Raf and barked a laugh.

“Don't worry. We know basic repairs but she's the only one who could actually fix you guys.”

Ratchet looked back and forth but kept his mouth shut and thoughts to himself. Instead of demanding she leave well enough alone, the medic watched to see what the girl would do. Miko herself didn't even care that she had an audience. All her focus was on the job at hand. Her voice hit a higher pitch of exasperated shock. “Bulk! There is a really big tree branch stuck right between your carburettor and the camshaft! You went off-roading without me!”

The ex-wrecker had been handling this new version of Miko pretty well. The fact that she knew a lot more about their anatomy than they thought was kind of strange, especially when she started using six or seven vowel words he didn't know the meaning of. He wasn't sure how to react to his charge when she talked about things that just flew over his helm, but Miko was still his brash and fun human-wrecker and that made things alright.

“Sorry Miko. I was doing recon on an energon mine. I promise I wasn't having fun without you.” He chuckled but stilled himself as she rapped her knuckles on his engine.

“Good. Now don't move. I like my hands attached to me.” 

Lying flat, she put the flashlight in her mouth and gently started to extract the branch. Growling when it wouldn't come out, Miko pulled back and yelled at Raoul to bring over her large cutters. He did so with an eye roll and the girl clipped the wood smaller, all the while telling her guardian what looked fine and what needed to be checked up on. “Seriously, your filters and your coolant lines need a good cleaning. Bug Doc later 'cause you are not leaving them like that.”

Ratchet continued to watch for a second in bewildered amusement before going back to his work. Not long after Arcee came in with the Darbys, followed by Bumblebee and Mirage. The latter two transformed and shook their helms in a negative. They hadn't any news of Optimus.

“I'm bored.” 

Thunking his head on the table, the street dancer moaned loudly. A shout from under Bulkhead answered him. “Spar with Jack. You both need to vent and practice.” Raoul lifted his head and thought about it for a second before nodding and jumping up to grab the other tall boy by the arm. 

“Wait, is that safe?” The mother immediately vetoed their idea, eyes widening as the teens kicked off their shoes and Jack set the bag with the key to the side. Arcee looked ready to argue too but thought about it before remaining silent. Having the kids know how to fight was a good thing for them to learn. Instead, she settled on the empty medberth and crossed her arms to watch. Raoul sent Miss Darby a wicked grin as her son tried to reassure her. 

“Don't worry mom. It's just hand to hand. And it's good to know for self-defense.”

He didn't have time to get out anything else before the dark-skinned teen rushed him. Dodging in a smooth slide, Jack whirled and crouched in a fighting stance. The two lunged at each other quickly, landing a few hits, blocking most, before pulling apart again to start circling. The only adult woman on base curled her fingers into fists, opening her mouth to tell them to stop before shutting it. 

They looked like they knew what they were doing. It wasn't just formless brawling but actual moves. Bouncing on the balls of their feet, they lunged and twisted around each other. Raoul rushed forward in a blur and dodged Jack's knee kick to spin around and aim for the younger boy's lower back. He missed and they stepped back to circle, breathing hard. June looked up to see the Autobots all watching with appreciative optics. Of course they approved of the children being able to defend themselves. They were fighting in a millenia long war after all. The single mother pinched the bridge of her nose and opened her eyes again to notice the medic by the bridge. She called over, “What are you doing? It's not broken is it?”

“No.” The mech answered tersely, trying to focus on his work and not the commotion from everyone else in the room.

Raf piped up, “Miko suggested he supercharge the ground bridge so we can jump to Cybertron.” The others perked up, fragile hope lighting in their optics. They could get to Cybertron? They could go get Optimus his memories and rescue him? No more running in circles because none of them really wanted to fill in as leader? Yes please, one operating space bridge for the Autobots!

“And it's not working!” Ratchet snarled, the rest of the team whining or sighing with long faces. 

Miko finally pulled the last of the branch out and slid out from under Bulkhead. Standing up and rolling eyes, she helped brush the wood into a pile, “I keep telling you, use a thermo-propulsions system hooked up to an energon generator to boost the energy levels and stabilize it with clion rods to discharge the negative flow.”

A few mouths popped open at her words while Ratchet climbed up onto the base floor and retorted sharply, “Clion rods might help with negative flow but they still can't do anything about the radial spin on the vortex when it goes from one point to the other. It will spin out before it reaches the other end....... And thermo-propulsions are rocket science. Where did you learn all of this?” He put his hands on his hips and gave the teen a sharp look. Raoul and Jack paused to catch a breather and relax for a moment.

“Bridge tech is not my forte. Just trying to help.” Putting her empty hands up in surrender, the girl settled on Bulkhead's knee as he transformed and sat down. “Thermo-propulsion isn't just for rocket science. They use it for other things.”

“Blonde originally went to some fancy nerd school.” Raoul tossed in.

He raised an eyebrow at the girl's face while the bots all looked at one another, curious to hear about the kid's previous life. Lives? They didn't even know how many times the children had lived. Scowling, Miko curled her lip, “I'm Asian this life brat! Get your eyes checked or borrow Chip's glasses.” A few people glanced at Raf who'd looked up from his computer but he made no comment on the name.

June had kept her patience this long. She understood that it was probably a prickly subject but she needed to know some things and she'd given them enough time, “What was it like before.... here? Were you reincarnated once or several times?”

The four looked at each other and nodded. They'd been expecting this. Rafael sighed and opened his mouth to explain but Raoul beat him to it. Taking on a somewhat sarcastic storyteller's tone, the street dancer started, “In the beginning, there was Primus. And we weren't there. But he was and-”

“Shut up Raoul.” Miko barked while Sideswipe started to giggle and the others rolled their optics.

“In the beginning, well, there were Autobots and Decepticons.” The girl fiddled with her fingers, keeping her eyes down and not looking at the others as everyone remained silent. Jack sat down on the floor and wrapped his arms around his drawn up knees as Raf scooted his chair closer to Bumblebee. Ratchet just leaned against the wall next to Mirage and Arcee. Miko continued quietly, “And they were fighting a war. It wasn't the first time they'd fought but it was the first time the war had destroyed their planet.”

“So they fled, the Autobots on the Ark and the Decepticons on the Nemesis. But when leaving the Cons attacked the Ark, everyone was fighting. But nobody noticed the space bridge they were going through was unraveling.” Carly closed her eyes and remembered sitting next to Ironhide as he told her how they'd landed on earth, his soothing southern drawl making the extraordinary story seem almost unreal, “Both ships were damaged and as they fell through, the bridge slung them across the universe to a small planet. The ships crashed out of the bridge and got caught in the planet's gravity. The Nemesis smashed into the Atlantic Ocean and was destroyed. The Ark crashed into a mountain in Oregon. Mount Saint Hilary.”

“It doesn't exist here.” Raf interrupted softly, the others startling as they'd gotten caught up in the story, “I checked.”

Carly nodded sadly, “There were a lot of Decepticons on the Ark because they'd been boarding when everyone had gone through the bridge. A lot of the people on the Autobot ship survived, including both Autobot and Decepticon high command. Anyways, the crash damaged the ship and Teletraan-One, the ship's computer system, put everyone into stasis. Four billion years later the mountain erupted and woke up Teletraan-”

June gasped, “Four billion?!” 

The bots all looked at each other surprised. That was not a short amount of time, even for a Cybertronian. Sunstreaker looked a little disbelieving of the tale but his twin wanted to know what happened. “So, Teletraan woke up?”

“Yeah. 1984, Teletrann woke up and got everyone else up.” The girl tapped a finger against her knee, expression vacant as she got lost in memories. “There was fighting and the Decepticons were pushed out by the bots. They went and, long story short, built a base from the remains of the Nemesis. The Autobots stayed in the Ark. It was more than half-buried in the mountain so they couldn't pull it out and they had no way to get back to Cybertron. Neither Bots not Cons tried to hide from the humans in our original universe.”

“And well, that's our beginning,” She finally looked at them, tilting her head back to smile up at Bulkhead behind her. “Carly Arlene Banas, Caucasian blonde with an MIT degree in electronics and chemistry. Like I said, the bots were never a secret and I was curious so I searched them out.”

Jack broke in with a large grin, “Caused a hell of a lot of trouble.”

“Like you never did!” Huffing in reply, she crossed her arms and shot Raf a flat look. He was laughing. Miko continued petulantly, “Spike Terrance Witwicky. Age fourteen when he and his dad became the first humans to interact with the Cybertronians.”

The other bots snickered and looked at Jack. Mirage gave him a strange look, “Spike? That sounds like a gang member's name.”

“The bots didn't wake up until '84. I was born in the late sixties and it's not one of my favorite names but it is mine.” Jack drawled calmly from his spot on the floor, “I have had better ones.” Arcee shifted in her seat and spoke up quietly, curious but hesitant. She wasn't sure if she wanted the answer to this question.

“Who was your guardian?”

He stilled, staring at her warily. Finally he sighed and ran a hand through his hair, “Bumblebee.”

The yellow scout straightened, not expecting that answer and beeped at his charge. “Raf? What about you?”

“I was originally Chip Chase. I wasn't at the Ark as often because I was working on a lot of tech projects but I usually hung out with you and Spike or Prowl and Jazz. Prowl is the one who taught me Cybertronian. Carly's guardian was Ironhide by the way. That's how she knows how Cybertronian weapons work.” The youngest grinned at their faces as the bots tried to make sense of all this. A few worried glances turned to Miko. Having the little human-wrecker know how to use cannons was a bit scary. 

“What about you Raoul?” June brushed her braid off her shoulder and turned to the boy who was sitting on the ground with arms crossed, “What was your name?”

“Raoul.”

The bots flicked their optics at one another in response to the deadpan. Jack chuffed a laugh and answered their unspoken question. “No matter what name he's born with, he always uses Raoul.”

“And nobody's making me change it. I have the best name, man.” Smirking, the kid wiggled his eyebrows at the others who smiled back. But Bulkhead's innocent query wiped the grin from his face.

“And your guardian?”

From behind Raoul and out of his line of sight, Jack made rapid cutting motions across his neck and mouthed the word 'no' over and over. Rafael's wide eyes clued the others in that it was a bad question while Miko just looked at everyone silently, gaze skipping around the room to take in their expressions. Tone dead, Raoul spat out flatly, “Tracks.”

Ratchet raised an optic ridge, remembering Jack's warning from before. Unfortunately, the Twins had yet to realize they were treading in dangerous waters. Sunstreaker had a mildly offended look on his face while his brother tried to joke.

“Tracks? The perfectionist prima donna Tracks? Come on dude-”

“Jump to the ending so we don't waste time.” Raoul interrupted, not even looking in Sideswipe's direction but at Miko. His hands were white and curled tightly, an angry set to his posture and eyes flashing, “Jump to where we died so we can just get this all out of the way.”

When the girl didn't respond, Jack took over, “War ended, Autobots won with casualties, people moved on and we died.”

“You died?!” Blue optics widened in protective fear as Bulkhead glanced down at Miko and then at the others kids. Arcee spoke up.

“But you said the war was over.”

Raoul rolled his eyes and snorted, “Yep. But humans age.”

The younger Darby lifted a hand and gestured for everyone to calm down. “Yes, we eventually died. Point being, after I died, I had a short chat with Primus. All of us did.”

“He was really polite. Kinda scary 'cause he's a god and super formal. I told him he didn't have to talk like that but he insisted.” Miko added quietly while swinging her legs, “Must be a job requirement.”

“And.... what happened after that?” June asked slowly.

The kids looked at each other and shrugged. Raf took a turn explaining, “We were reborn.”

“This is ridiculous. Unbelievable.” Mirage huffed with arms crossed, staring at the children in disdain that they would try to pull something like this. Or maybe they actually believed it. In which case they were crazy. The white and blue spy didn't like either answer. But that left them actually telling the truth and it just wasn't feasible.

Ratchet turned to him indignantly, “Are you saying Unicron was mixed up? That he didn't really recognize Jack? How would you explain how they know all this information on things we didn't tell them? Hm?”

Having no answer, the mech just shut his mouth into a thin line. Bumblebee gently stroked a finger down Raf's back. “So you remember everything from before as soon as your sparked? Born! I mean born.”

“No Bee.” The boy giggled at the mess up. “The memories from our previous lives come back when we're about six or seven.”

“Ugh. I hate being six. Damn headaches every single time.” Miko moaned, dropping her head into her palms and rubbing her forehead. June narrowed her eyes at the children and then looked at her son. Very hesitantly, as if afraid she was wrong (or maybe right), the single mother spoke up.

“Jack, when you were six you woke up screaming from nightmares for months.”

Quietness settled on them as everyone collectively turned to Jack. Miko winced and raised an eyebrow at him but only got a shrug in return. He sighed, “Not every time turns out okay. I've yet to see the Decepticons win, but sometimes there's heavy losses. And sometimes we die of injuries, not age.”

The others blanched, optics paling just slightly and frames tensing. The thought of the children being in danger life after life and dying because of the Decepticons had them itching to do something. Anything. Beat the spark out of the Decepticons mostly. And rescue Orion at the same time. Thankfully, Sideswipe decided that if they were going to discuss this amazing thing called reincarnation, the mood needed to be lightened. “So hey, your names are different each time? Tell me some. Any really crazy ones?”

“I can't think of any crazy ones. Mine were Chip, Adam, Oliver, Nathan. I liked being Tyler a lot. It was fun. And now Rafael.” The Esquivel kid hummed, going back over several lives.

“My favorite is Miko!” The girl fist-pumped, “Carly and Mikaela are second. Rachael, Lisa. I think I hated Ellie the most. It's a terrible name. Then Verity, Nerissa, and Jacqueline. I think that's all of them.”

Bulkhead stared at her with wide optics, “That's a lot of names.”

“This is my ninth life Bulk.” She just grinned and offered up a fist which he carefully bumped with his own. 

“Nine times!” Ratchet exclaimed, armor flaring as he ran through the calculations, “That's …..Primus. That's a lot of human years. All of you have lived nine lives.” The medic pinched the bridge of the plating where a human nose would be. He knew that reincarnation meant coming back but he hadn't thought it would be that much. Nine was.... many lives. He wasn't sure he himself could handle that amount of memories.

“Not all of us. Miko has the most.” Jack explained patiently. “Usually, one or two of us are born in a universe and then when we get moved to the next one, we're either alone or we eventually find one of the others. I've lived eight. Chip is six, right?” He got a nod of confirmation. “This is the first time we've all been in the same universe since the beginning.”

“Why here?” Shifting to peer closely at the humans, Mirage lowered his helm to better see them, “Why is this time different?”

The others exchanged looks, except for Raoul who no longer seemed to be listening but instead was sitting with his eyes closed, arms behind his head as he leaned against the platform base. Miko made a frustrated gesture with her hands and Jack looked to the youngest who sighed and answered. “We don't know. That's what we've been trying to figure out.”

Miko grimaced, “My top theory was the dark energon. First time we've encountered it. That led to Unicron actually being in the earth instead of a planet and sun devouring monstrosity in space like usual. But we didn't do much to help defeat him, so we're back to square one.”

A collective sigh before Sunstreaker leaned around his twin to poke Jack in the shoulder, “You didn't tell us your names.”

“Are they embarrassing?” The red lambo inquired hopefully. Jack's frank look and smile made him pout when he realized they weren't.

“Nope. Lets see, Spike, Markus, Beckett, Kael, Dominic, Charles, Sam, and Jack.”

“I wanna know about Sam.”

Raoul hadn't said a word since earlier when he'd snapped about them dying. But now, eyes opening to almost but not quite glare at the other teen, he spoke up with a hard tone. “I know you told Chip. But I'm kinda curious. What happened last life that made you freak for touching that key?”

No one said a word as Jack turned to stare blankly at the eighteen year old before murmuring, “I'd rather not talk about it.”

“Well I'd rather know.” 

Miko snarled loudly, “Shut up now Raoul before I give you a black eye!” She gripped the handles of her tool. The darker-skinned boy stood, moving toward Jack with a leisurely roll. Getting up as well, Jack looked the other dead in the eye, only an inch separating them. Raoul was barely taller.

“He doesn't need a protector Carly. He is an adult after all.” The corner of Raoul's mouth ticked up in a sardonic grin before disappearing.

“Raoul, if Jack doesn't want to talk about-” Miss Darby was cut off as her son raised a hand toward her and spoke, still not looking away from the other teen.

“Last life, I had to take a Cybertronian artifact with a lot of power and race across a city with Megatron on my tail. If he got it, the war would be over and he would have won. I ended up destroying it. But because I did that, the thing dumped massive amount of information in my head. A Cybertronian most likely could have handled it. But human minds aren't meant to download that much over a period of a few hours. Going a little crazy for awhile really wasn't fun.” Sam spoke softly and calmly. His tone was pleasantly conversational, just like they were discussing what movie they should watch. When Raoul shifted his weight, Sam kicked out and knocked his legs out from under him. As soon as he started to flail, Witwicky grabbed the taller teen's arms and twisted, neatly slamming him into the ground and pinning him there with an elbow digging into the chest. It had happened in two seconds. “I also made friends with a military lieutenant. Nice man. Taught me how to use a pistol.”

For a long moment they stared at each other. Raoul had practically grown up on the streets and was no push over. Things tended not to scare him. But Jack's eyes had turned as hard as polished sapphires. He was not going to let the other boy push him around.

Finally, Jack backed off and straightened. Face red with anger, the other jumped to his feet and stomped out of their gathered circle, right past the bots and deeper into the base. Raf groaned and face-palmed. 

“That's why you don't bring up Tracks.”

Miko hissed, obviously still pissed off, “He gets all mad and now he's gonna be a prick for the next hour or so.” 

Their conversation was interrupted by the consoles lighting up and chiming, alerting everyone that Agent Fowler was trying to contact them. Miko hopped off her guardian so he could stand. Everyone shuffled out of the way to allow Ratchet to pass. The medic answered the incoming call and a live stream video opened up, the older male's face set into a frustrated expression. “Please tell me you've got Prime back.”

“I hate to say that we do not, Agent Fowler.” Ratchet answered wearily, “Why? Has something happened?”

The government operative huffed angrily, “You better believe something's happened! Those Cons are hitting the same places all over again, stealing tech and damaging government property! The Pentagon wants to shut down your base and the Feds are up my ah........ Hello Miss Darby.” Fowler finished nervously, catching sight of the mother as she climbed up the platform to see the screen better.

“Wait, the exact same list of materials is being stolen?” The bots looked at each other as Ratchet studied the man on the screen. 

“You better believe it. Do you want me to forward it to you?”

“No. I don't believe that would be necessary. Thank you Agent Fowler.” The connection cut before the man could get another word in. Growling among themselves, the bots cursed the Decepticons. Sunstreaker just rolled his optics and snarled 'fraggers' while the others started to argue. 

Mirage sighed, “It seems they are building another space bridge.”

“Yeah? But what for? I doubt Buckethead's gonna want to play with zombies and dark energon after this.” Bumblebee clicked. 

“They can't shut down the base! Where are you guys going to go?” Raf fidgeted, flipping open his computer again before closing it again. There really wasn't anything he could do at the moment that would help. Smashing his fists together, Bulkhead rumbled moodily.

“Well this is just great! How are we supposed to protect the humans, keep the Cons from stealing scrap and rescue Optimus at the same time?” The ex-wrecker rubbed his faceplates, “The Boss could figure out how to deal with all this but he's. Not. Here!” Bulkhead's miniature rant finished as he whirled to pace back and forth.

Glaring coldly, Arcee snapped, “You're pretty good at stating the obvious Bulk. Anything else you'd like to mention that we already know?”

“Hey! Fighting isn't going to fix anything!” Jack's yell was ignored. The big green mech drew himself up and stepped closer to the motorbike femme, getting in her face threateningly.

“Nothing I can say in front of the children!”

A startled hysterical laugh made them pause and glance down to see Miko cackling and clutching her stomach. It gave Ratchet the chance to pull Arcee back and shoot a warning look at Bulkhead. Rafael just shook his head and sighed while the girl continued to make amused noises. “Ah, Bulk. I know sooooo many curses.” She giggled, eyes watering as she looked up at her guardian and smiled a little too widely, just a bit too much teeth showing, “Trust me, all four of us have heard some pretty nasty things. I could give you lessons.”

“I think everyone forgot the good news.” Jack broke in, standing to put his shoes back on and tuck away the bag with the Key to Vector Sigma.

Several blank looks as the bots turned to each other confused. Bumblebee spoke up. “Good news?”

“The space bridge.” Bumblebee startled as Jack answered. Had the teen understood him? Jack smiled at the scout. “I can catch about half of what you say but Raf is still better. But back to the space bridge. If we let the Decepticons finish it, they'll do all the work and then we can just steal it to get to Cybertron.”

“And get Optimus his memories!” Whooping, Sideswipe cheered and started to dance around.

Ratchet cut in, not wanting them to get their hopes up. “We'd have to find it first! It could be anywhere on the planet. If it was in the atmosphere again, we'd have noticed.”

“At least it's a place to start.” Relenting, Arcee sat down again and offered Bulkhead a silent apology with a hand gesture. He fluffed his armor before nodding and smiling back a little. None of them noticed Raoul sneaking back in. The still barefoot boy quietly got behind Jack and then jumped forward, tackling him to the ground.

With a whoop and a holler, the two wrestled each other. The others drew back to let them go at it. June shook her head in amusement. “Boys.” She drawled when the medic looked over to see if she would stop them. 

Miko rush attacked Raoul as soon as the two broke apart and in seconds the half-play fighting turned into some serious brawling with yelps and grunts as she belted into him. Fighting back, he nearly bit her and Jack struggled out of the pile to sit down with a huff. Bulkhead looked ready to intervene. “Miko!”

“Let it go.” Jack gasped for breath as the two started hurling insults at each other. “They tend to do this. I'm kinda surprised they waited this long before trying to beat the scrap out of each other.”

Stepping back to take a breather, Raoul crouched and laughed. “Come on Raf, join us. Been awhile since we fought.” His grin was still slightly angry and way too excited even with the split lip. Miko flashed a crazy smile of her own before nearly giving the older kid a black eye.

Rafael crossed his arms and raised an eyebrow in an exasperated look, “I am twelve right now. Have you seen how short my legs are?”

Turning to look up at Bee who was moving to put his servos between his charge and the wrestling kids, Jack chuckled, “He can kick butt if he wants too Bee. Just wait till he gets taller.” Bee just shook his helm and buzzed a warning, carefully scooping up Raf and pulling him closer. The mech didn't care. Nobody was fighting his friend. 

Tossing his head back, Jack laughed at what the scout had said while the Twins cheered on the brawling teens and the others started to map out sections to scout for the space bridge.  
.  
.  
.  
Orion was terribly confused. 

Things he thought were facts were turning into vague questionable ideas while he puzzled out what he should be doing. It was like taking blind steps forward and hoping he wasn't walking off a cliff. Megatronous was his close friend. He trusted him with his life. Yet he'd threatened him earlier. He'd lied to him, hurt him. Orion wasn't sure what was real and what wasn't because every time he was on firm footing the ground rushed out from under him.

Were the Autobots really the enemy? Did they actually do all those terrible things or was that another falsehood?

What if it wasn't? What if he was doing the wrong thing by going against his friend?

But his spark couldn't sit still, spinning in frustrated circles in his chest. No. He would not allow Megatronous to continue. Something was wrong here.

The blue and red mech stepped out of the ground bridge and took in a sharp intake at the sight of the whirling space bridge. He'd seen them from a distance before, when explorers and merchant ships were heading to distant galaxies. But he'd never been up close to one. 

It was terribly loud, a rushing howl of wind and energy that spun into one center point. But even with the light and noise, the archivist would've been blind to miss the large gray form of Megatronous slamming a fist into a bulky green mech. The green one went down with a groan.

“Megatronous!” Optimus yelled, immediately catching the leader's attention. Burning red optics bore into his, a madness that hadn't been there before pinning him with it's gaze. “Stop this!”

“Orion, go back to the ship and do as you were told.” 

Lips curled up, baring jagged denta. There it was. That tone. Megatronous' voice held a subtle tone to it that belied how close to snapping he really was. When he'd first come to the ship, Orion had noticed it and passed it off as time changing things. But no, he knew better know. There was rage underscoring the words that left Megatron's throat. A hatred and a violence that left shivers along his backstruts. To think, he'd never feared his friend before.

“No.” The gentler mech replied firmly as he took several steps forward. “Please stop. Whatever is wrong we can fix. But killing will not do that. Please Megatronous.”

Instead, Megatron laughed. It was a cold and harsh sound. “I don't think so. If you won't do as I say, then you're no longer of use.” Orion flinched as if slapped. He froze, unable to look away and blue optics widening, as the silver ex-gladiator slid his sword out and raised it. Only a second stood in the way of him lunging forward. 

One second and a blue motorbike. 

The whine of a small engine distracted the warlord. He started to turn his helm. Before he could finish moving, a small two-wheeler shot out of the space bridge and transformed, slamming into Megatron's back and knocking him away from Orion. 

They fell over the edge of the platform. Even as Megatron got back up to pin her to the wall, one of the others stood up to fight. Distantly, Orion recognized him as Ratchet, even if his armor looked different. 

But his attention was stolen as a strange organic jumped out of the vortex as well. It stared right at him and Orion knelt carefully as it jogged forwards, some sort of intent obvious in it's movements. It was mechanoid in shape, much like a Cybertronian with two bipedal legs, two arms attached to shoulder joints and a head resting between. Glass protected an expressive face that was proportioned like a mech's. It even had blue optics, although they were darker than any he's seen on a Cybertronian. Orion had never really met an organic creature, intelligent or not, but he'd read of some. None were anything like this one. That expressive face lit up as it came to a stop before him and raised a hand.

It was holding the Key to Vector Sigma.

“Are you.... certain, I am worthy?” The archivist whispered in awe and a little fear, unable to take his optics from one of Cybertron's most revered relics. Only the Primes could carry the Key. The Primes and those chosen by them. The small organic mechanoid smiled and answered in the language the Decepticons had been using since he'd woken in that strange chamber.

“You have no idea.”

Light shot out of the Key and crashed into Orion's spark, cascading over him and drowning out Megatron's howl of defeat and rage. For what seemed like a very long moment, the brightness softened the world around Orion, calming him. Then memories slammed into his processor, the roar of a bursting dam, and drowned the mech in sights, sounds, and emotions. Eternity, it felt like. Eternity before the light faded and Optimus straightened and spun on battle instinct alone, just in time to catch Megatron's blade. 

“Megatron.” Battle mask sliding into place, the Prime leveled his rival with a very dark look. Carnelian optics widened incrementally, recognizing that Optimus was back and he was pissed. “Leave!”

Prime emphasized his words with a brutal punch right to Megatron's midsection, sending the titan flying back several yards. Yells of joy off to the side rose up as Bumblebee pulled himself into a sitting position and cheered on the Autobot leader. Ratchet helped a shaky Arcee stand as Bulkhead shook himself, still a little out of it but rising. The bots watched as Megatron straightened only to have Optimus shoot at him. Bolt after bolt of laser fire peppered his armor as the blue and red mech took slow and measured steps towards the Decepticon. Bumblebee raised his gun to join in and Arcee started to fire too. 

Raising an arm to shield his face, Megatron sneered. His armor was singeing, burns appearing on the scarred gray. The ex-gladiator took one look at Optimus, still obviously enraged, and decided the fight was not worth it. With a snarl at Soundwave to open the ground bridge, he took two steps back and disappeared from the cavern. 

“Whooo!” Bulkhead bellowed happily, “Boss is back! Haha! Take that Megatron!”

The mech gladly took Bumblebee's servo to help him stand and crowed with joy as the others made their way towards their leader. Optimus turned his gaze down to Jack, realizing now that he had been the one to give him the Key. But when he looked at the boy, images overlay reality.

Flashed of memories he knew were not his shifted through his mind like smoke. For one second there was a brown haired boy with honey colored eyes standing where Jack stood. Then an older teen with dark red hair. Lighter skin, darker skin. Black, blonde, tawny hair. The eyes flickered through colors like they didn't know which one they liked best. Scenes followed the visions; a desert race where a jeep and dune buggy tried to see who could kick up the most dust and two boys cheered them on, a mountain forest with glimpses of the bronze metal from a ship stood out among the rocks, a war-torn city and sirens following a fight, grassy plains being flattened by a strong wind as seekers danced above, a dark night sky nearly swallowed by gleaming jeweled stars as mechs below started a mourning song and a human voice asked what they were saying. 

Names. Names that were Jack but were not Jack flitted through his memory chips as the Prime tried to recall who he was actually talking to.

“Spi- no. Sam... Jack.” He tried, getting the sounds and syllables all mixed up. The others fell silent and stood back, allowing the two to converse. Jack took off the helmet of the spacesuit and grinned up at the huge mech, exhaustion but happiness in his face. He nodded after Optimus got it right.

“Jack.”

“I do not understand.” Optimus watched the boy, flickers of other faces still overlaying his as the whispered names tangled in memories he only half knew. Jack smiled wider, the corners lifting in weathered amusement like he knew much more that the Prime did. 

“We've been here before. More times than you would believe. And I don't know when it will end....or if I want it to. But we'll always be here to help so long as you need it.”

Settling on his knee plates, Optimus bowed his head and whispered.

“Thank you.”


	5. Epilogue: Time For Home

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is the last chapter.  
> And there are three things Miko understands when it's spoken in Cybertronian: People's names, swear words, and threats.

Life loves to throw curve balls. As soon as things start to fall into routine everything will eventually slip out of the normal. Some people took every measure they could to avoid that. Some were adaptable and learned to just go with whatever came, one step at a time. 

The bots were valiantly in the latter category. After so much fighting, they had to be to survive. So learning that the kids they were guarding knew a ton more about their history and culture was one massive curve ball that knocked them down before they took it in stride. They were certainly handling it better than anyone else. Agent Fowler had been brought in to the fold because it wasn't worth the effort trying to hide it and the government man being aware would eventually be useful. He still wasn't quite sure he believed it and loudly gave his opinion but just threw his hands up like he did every time things with the bots went a little weird. Miss Darby was struggling to accept that her son wasn't quite as defenseless as she thought. Struggling, but coming to terms. The mother still had to be reminded that yes, Jack did know how to drive, and wield a gun, and a knife, and patch up minor injuries on the bots, and finish high school with flying colors if he wanted, and swear worse than a trucker if he really got going.......

In her mind he was still sixteen, regardless of mentality, so he still had to behave like a sixteen year old outside of base. And keep swearing to a minimum. June mainly let that one go because Raoul and Miko cussed all the time and Jack didn't do it without good reason. 

So everyone was learning to handle it. The kids were using the opportunity to expand their knowledge without having to creep around why they were curious about things they shouldn't know about. And everyone learned that when it came to stockpiling information, Rafael was a pack rat. The genius kept track of as much info as he possibly could and rewrote it every lifetime so he wouldn't forget. Occasionally details would get mixed up and he'd refer to one of the others if he could. The upside to all this; the bots would get to tell stories without having to constantly stop to explain things while getting access to information from other universes.

And Ratchet was top of the list for those guilty of constantly wanting to know. He was positively gleeful once he realized so much information was on Rafael's computer. But the medic couldn't get to it himself, not that he would without permission. Not even Soundwave could get into the laptop and Raf took measures to ensure that no one but him could open those files without them being destroyed.

“And Kalis?” Crouched to be optic level with the youngest boy, Ratchet had spent the last hour going over places on Cybertron to see what was the same and what was different.

Raf smiled and turned the screen back to him, “A city, usually heavy in the engineering industry. More than once I've heard there's a fusion reactor in the lower levels.” The boy started to open the file he'd written on Kalis and made an annoyed sound as a virus warning popped up, “One sec.”

He destroyed the infected coding and cut off the internet connection before Soundwave could try again. The Con had apparently taken Raf's continued resistance as a challenge and was absolutely determined to eliminate the boy's computer at the very least. So far Raf's firewalls had held up. Miko paused her game and looked over. 

“Your new best friend?” A sarcastic inquiry when she already knew the answer.

Bumblebee whirred angrily, doorwings flapping up and down before muttering something rude about Soundwave. Whatever he said had the medic raising an optic ridge and sent the girl cackling. 

“You know that's physically possible, right?” She grinned at the surprise on the scout's face, “Two words: Sideswipe. High-grade.” Miko went right back to hysterical laughter as the other groaned and tried to ignore that mental image. Thankfully for them, said lambo was out on patrol with his twin and thus Ratchet and Bee were saved from an explanation they probably didn't want. 

The alarm going off took away their attention. The lights flashed and the keening alarm was quieted as Ratchet straightened to get a good look at the screen. A shout brought Optimus and Mirage in from other parts of the base. “It's a communication link from a ship just outside Earth's atmosphere. They're hovering.”

“Any sign of Decepticons?” Optimus inquired steadily.

Mirage frowned gravely, “If they're not there yet they will be soon.”

The orange and white mech looked up at their leader “Permission to answer the link? It seems like they're waiting for a reply.” A nod and Ratchet hit the keys to talk to the waiting Cybertronians, “This is Autobot Outpost Omega One, responding to communication attempt. Who am I speaking to?”

“Ratchet! It's so good to see you! Although I can't really see you, it's more like hear you but I'm glad to hear from you too! It's been forever since we found anyone else and this ship has been driving me a little stir crazy. I can't wait till Red says we can land safely 'cause I really want to drive. I haven't gotten a chance since-” A happy chatter filled the room as the bot on the other end forgot to introduce himself. 

Mirage choked on a laugh and turned it into a polite cough while Ratchet face palmed. Then another voice, this one a horrified shrill, cut off the rambler's. “WHAT ARE YOU DOING!? Why are you telling them things?! What if they're not Autobots?! I leave for five seconds to check the defense grid and you're talking to..., do you even know who you're TALKING TO??!”

“Yeah. Ratchet.” That answer was surprisingly short and simple considering the previous run along. Sighing, the medic himself spoke up. 

“Bluestreak knows who I am Red Alert. And yes, I'm still an Autobot.”

“How do I know the Decepticons aren't just using a manipulation of your voice right now?” The apparent Red Alert snapped. The bots were busy staring at the screen and didn't see the kids behind them. Rafael's face positively glowed with how wide his smile was while Miko jumped up and pelted out of the command center and farther into base, going as fast as a starving dog after a bone and twice as enthusiastically. 

Optimus chuckled lightly and let Red know he was here, “I highly doubt Ratchet would ever help the Decepticons, Red Alert. And Hydrax.” The big mech added the code word to let the security chief know it really was him. Unfortunately, one code word wasn't enough. 

“Twist.” The mech responded.

“Pillar.”

“Are you guys doing that top secret codeword thing-” Bluestreak was once again cut off as the other mech growled at him.

“Don't interrupt!” A quiet apology was heard in the background, “Solar.”

“Axalon.” Optimus replied easily. It was silent for a second before the grumbly bot huffed through the comm link.

“Alright. But if we get down there and you're not Optimus, then I'm shooting you and changing the code words.” That statement was met with an optic roll from Ratchet and a dubious look from Mirage. Speaking up, the noble questioned the logic of that plan.

“Hypothetically, if this is not Optimus, how would the real Optimus know you've changed the codewords?” 

He was met with silence as Raf giggled quietly and Optimus gave Mirage a look, shaking his helm. Do not argue with Red Alert if you can help it. Just go with the light and easy security because it could be much worse and arguing is not worth the headache that comes after. Growling, Red replied quickly, “Permission to land sir? There are a few of us and I don't want to stay here where the Decepticons can get some easy shots in.”

“Permission granted.” Prime smiled, giving him the coordinates, “We'll open a bridge in a moment.”

By the time Miko had found Jack and was dragging him to the command center, the incoming bots were just stepping out of the ground bridge and into base. The first mech through, a somewhat short, round white and red bot with helm horns similar to Sideswipe's, studied the Prime up and down for a few seconds before relaxing just slightly. “Prime. It's good to see some friendly faceplates.”

“It's been forever!” Behind Red was a bot about Bumblebee's size. Doorwings seemed to be constantly moving in one direction or another, brushing against curved gray armor. Here and there, dull red poked out of the monochrome shades while headlights and tires said this bot had a vehicle alt mode. A red chevron graced his forehead. It was similar to Ratchet's but wider and curved. The mech gave a wide smile and waved enthusiastically at Bumblebee when he saw the bot, making a curious expression when he caught sight of Raf. “Oh hi! I'm Bluestreak. You're an organic, right? Well, I mean I can see you are, but what species are you? We haven't had a lot of time to find out stuff about this planet because we just landed. Oh! Sorry for rambling! I only do it when I'm nervous or excited and I'm really happy right now because it's been foooorrrrreeeevvvveerrrrr since we saw anyone else!”

The 'we' referred to two others behind the first two newcomer. The third mech was similar to Bluestreak with his color pattern but the gray was a much lighter shade and there was more red. He was only about Arcee's size and had much boxier armor than the chatterbox's curves. Scratching his red helm for a second, he took in everyone in the room with calm blue optics before turning to salute Optimus.

“Windcharger, Sir. It's an honor to meet you.”

Tilting his helm in a solemn nod, the Prime smiled gently, “I thank you. I am glad you have made it here safely.”

From behind everyone else, an annoyed posh tone rose, “Can you please move?” He punctuated the statement with a light push to Windcharger. “I don't want to stand in the ground bridge for the next hour thank you very much.”

The bridge was actually shut down but that didn't seem to matter to the tall mech. Body armor a brilliant shade of cobalt blue, the bot was polished to a shine. Smooth white metal curved here and there that only helped to accent surprisingly red faceplates. What really grabbed attention was the small wings gracefully arching to either side from his back and visible tires and headlights, which made everyone else question his alt mode. The mech was beautiful and judging from the expression on his face, he knew it. 

Jack and Miko looked at each other, twin expressions of joy rising. Miko started to whoop, jumping in the air with a fist raised. The others turned to stare at her confused but the flashy mech just lifted an optic ridge in amusement. 

“Well, someone knows beauty when they see it. Since I'm sure you're all wondering, I'm Tracks.”

A laugh startled out of Raf, causing Optimus to give the children a suspicious glance as to what exactly they knew and why they were so excited about the last mech showing up. Before he could ask however, the girl looked at Jack who jerked his head toward the hallway in a light nod and she was off again. The bots just traded looks at the weird behavior. Huffing at the interruption, Red Alert put his servos on his hips and continued. 

“Bluestreak is correct. We came into this planet's orbit just a little bit ago and while I've compiled some data about this planet, it's not enough. I'd also like to look at the security of this base and make sure it's up to standard so we don't have any of those Decepticons sneak-” 

Unfortunately, the security mech was cut off by a loud exclamation from down the hall and out of sight. Everyone turned to silently listen. Hurried words that were too low and far away to be understood were followed by a yelp and then a thud. Footsteps thumped in a drumming pattern as the eldest teen raced into the room, leaping over the open supply crates as he cut the curve and scrambled to a stop in front of the ground bridge. Breathing hard, Raoul stared at Tracks with eyes as wide as saucers. 

He didn't notice that some strands of his dark hair had escaped from the tie he'd used to pull it back or that Miko gingerly stepped into the room after him. She muttered 'Glitch' as she passed him although the corners of her lips were turned up in the beginnings of a smile as she went to stand by Jack. 

Tracks seemed to think all this was funny, “These organics do seem to realize who's the best looking around here.” He smiled, “I doubt they've seen any automobile or mech as good looking as me.”

“I don't know. We have Sunstreaker on base.” Raf shrugged at Tracks' raised optic ridge. While the mech's helm was turned away, the street dancer's expression went from shock to nonchalant and unimpressed boredom. Raoul snorted through his nose. 

“I've seen better.”

Taken aback, the mech looked down at him indignantly, “Excuse me?! You were just staring-”

“I was excited to see new arrivals.” Shrugging, the boy passed it off as if Tracks hadn't been just about the only thing he'd been looking at in the room. He's spent maybe a second glancing at everyone else. Probably less. 

Said new arrivals looked at the earth bot's for an explanation to this. Only a few silent and confused shrugs answered them. Ratchet and Bumblebee looked at the kids who only smiled back blithely, with the exception of Raoul, innocence nearly pouring from them. It didn't really work though. Most of the bots present had dealt with Sideswipe more than once after all. Raf just wiggled his eyebrows at Bluestreak. Gobsmacked, doorwings shot straight up as the mech realized human faces were that flexible and he started to giggle. Optimus interrupting the beginnings of the Tracks and Raoul argument gained their attention. 

“The first order of business is to find alternative modes so as to blend in with the humans.” The Prime explained so the newcomers would know what the organic species was called, “We are guest on this planet and the general public does not know of our existence.”

“Want me to help with that?”

Bumblebee whirred surprise at Raoul's question. He turned to the medic who shook his helm, a strange expression on his face. Prime raised an optic ridge and glanced at the humans in turn. He would have preferred one of the others. Raoul rarely volunteered to help with anything unless he was extremely bored or had an interest in the outcome. He also didn't listen very well to anyone, not even the Twins who were sort-of guardians. None of them officially held that title since there hadn't been a need thus far and the boy was difficult on the best of days. 

On the other hand, it was possible he'd fit better with one of the new arrivals. The leader wasn't sure what was going on between Raoul and Tracks but he suspected is had to do with the children's previous lives. They'd explained a lot of things but he knew there were some subjects they purposely did not bring up. Beyond that, Raoul knew cars and models better than the rest of of them. And by the body language of Jack, Miko, and Rafael, they wanted Raoul to do this. 

Placing his trust in all four of them, Optimus agreed, “That would be most appreciated. Red Alert,” he turned to the shorter mech, “I would prefer it if you would stay here so we can talk and you can get a new alt mode later.”

“Gladly.” Red sighed. He needed a break from the other bots and a chance to talk with his old friend. 

“Right then mechs.” Raoul clapped his hands, a sly look climbing his face. “We're off to the city for a few hours.” With that, he turned and started walking towards the hall that lead out of base. Windcharger and Bluestreak shrugged at each other, folding down into their Cybertronian alt modes. While Bluestreak open his door to offer the boy a ride, Tracks showed off by transforming and then gunning his engine to zip out of the main room. The others followed right after.

Two seconds of silence prevailed as the party left before Ratchet turned to the kids, well aware of what Optimus wanted to explain to Red Alert before anything else. “I thought you said they were close.”

“They were. I just never said they got along.” With a toothy smile, Jack chuckled. 

Miko smirked and picked at her nails absently, “Don't worry Doc. Raoul will bring down Tracks' ego soon enough and Raoul will stop being such a brat now that his favorite person in the universe is here.”

“Optimus, what are they talking about?” Scowling, Red looked up at the bigger mech. “We just arrived. How could that organic, human,” he corrected, “know Tracks?”

Grimacing at his teammate's lack of tact, Prime sighed, “There is something we need to discuss.”

“And I'll do the explanation.” Grinning evilly, the medic grabbed Red's shoulders in a tight no-nonsense grip. This was definitely revenge for Red Alert not believing he was actually talking to Ratchet on the comms earlier. Squawking and suddenly off-balance as the mech started to pull him out of the command center, Red looked at Optimus for help. The Prime opened his mouth but a sharp look from the medic made him shut it. Ratchet was going to have this discussion with Red Alert or a certain Prime was going to have an earlier virus checkup this month. Maybe a full systems flush with it. 

Once those two disappeared out of sight, Bumblebee shivered. It was never fun to be on the receiving end of Ratchet's hard stare. Bad things always followed. Optimus just rubbed his faceplates tiredly as noise told the lot of them that the explanation was not going smoothly. 

Red Alert tried to walk back into the main room, expression in the freaked-out zone and a steady stream of words pouring from his mouth, “Nopenopenopenopenope-”

With a quick snag of his servo, the medic latched onto the chubby bot's arm and started to drag him back. “You cannot 'nope' your way out of this situation.”

“-nonononononononononono-”

While they once again disappeared, Red Alert's face that of someone about to face something extremely unpleasant, Rafael climbed down the stairs to floor level and set some quarters on the crate nearest to them. “One dollar Raoul convinces Tracks to pick a terrible alt mode by telling him it's popular here.”

“You're betting?” One part incredulous, three parts horribly amused, Bumblebee clicked and buzzed at the short boy. Optimus just watched silently, a weary smile starting to show, although it would only be noticeable to those who knew to look for it.

A large grin graced Raf's face as he beamed up at the yellow mech, “It's only a dollar.”

Jack moved over to set two of his own quarters on the small pile, “Dollar fifty he shows him the flashiest vehicle in the state.”

“Two-fifty it's a firebird corvette.” Miko held up paper money and rolled hazel eyes at her companion's expressions, “What? Males are sentimental too. You all might pretend otherwise but you are.”

While the others didn't have the courage to disagree to her face, Miko added her bet to the pile.  
.  
.  
.  
Breathe in. Breathe out.

Feet slammed into the ground, pushing off and propelling him forward. How many times had he done this? Too many times to count. He'd lost track a long time ago. 

For a split second, he couldn't recall exactly where he was, which Autobots were at his back, and which Decepticons he was running from. 

-short/silver/sharp Frenzy/ going to kill him/ running/ Mikaela next to him/ fence/ move/ Barricade's fighting Bee/ things just started/ Sam/ can't die this early-

-clawed/onyx black/servo clawed the air just above his head/ duck/ Skywarp/ don't let him catch/ grass/plains/big sky/ run boy run/ he'll warp to base/ run-

-city/buildings/tall/burning/fire/ things on fire/ screaming/ dont' stop now/ it's not over yet/ acrid smell/smoke/oil/concrete/ they're still after you/ can't stop-

-blaster fire/ walls of the base shaking/ roaring/roaring/was that explosions or screaming?/ lights above flickering/ Hoist urging them to get to the room ahead/ Gizmo had secured it/ just a little farther/ Decepticons at their backs-

Scatterings of images and memories pelted Jack as they bolted away from the fight. A desert, a mountainside, an empty road in the dark as bare feet dug into the pavement and left drops of blood, small towns and a towering metropolis, a barren metal world abandoned in the wake of war as the two factions once again clashed and he ran to secure the space bridge before Shockwave could shut it down. 

It was supposed to be an easy day. Just go check out a faint signal with Arcee, Miko, and Bulkhead. They hadn't realized a scrambler was set up to block their comm links until they'd spotted Starscream and the Vehicons. They hadn't meant to drive right into a trap. 

Miko was ahead by only two feet. When had her hair gotten that dark or short? She usually left it down....

Right, Miko. Not Carly.

Legs pumping, lungs grasping at whatever air they could hold and working like bellows, Jack leaped up the hillside. Adrenaline burned through his muscles and left them with a hazy numb feeling, like they were someone else's limbs that were moving so fast. He tried to ignore the sounds of battle below and behind them. Crashes and echoing rings rent the air as metal hit metal, high pitched whines of charging weapons opposed bellows of pain or taunts. Just a little farther. They just had to get to the top of the short hill and down the other side. Out of sight, out of mind, and hopefully away from the fight. 

Breathe in, breathe out. 

How many times had he run for his life. He couldn't remember any more. Did knowing the answer even matter?

There was a loud crash, no more distinctive than any of the other crashes. But on it's heels came a muffled sort of silence that only lasted a second. The kind that was the body's way of saying something was wrong. A shadow fell over him, a shout in the distance.

Something heavy hit Jackson Darby in the back as he ran. 

Darkness swallowed him faster than the pain could and he knew nothing more.  
.  
.  
.  
He walked for quite awhile before he stopped to wonder why he was walking. 

It was pleasantly warm, not too cool and not too hot, for what appeared to be a desert. The only reason he noticed the temperature at all was because he expected it to be scorching. But the sun above was not turning his skin a ruddy shade of sunburn red nor were the sands blistering the bottoms of his feet. 

In fact, the sand grains felt nice scratching between his toes and across his skin. He sank his bare feet into the little dunes just to enjoy the feeling. 

With nothing else to do, he continued walking. Besides the little grooves in the sand, it was quite flat, wherever this place was. So flat that it just seemed to go on forever and ever. Only distant mountain ranges and rolling hills showed that he was actually heading somewhere. The strangest part of it all was the sky though. He kept glancing up to study the strange color that was almost faded blue but not really blue. 

It took him a moment to realize someone was walking with him. 

“Lennox.” Sam smiled, happy to see the older man next to him. Dressed in his weekend clothes, Will wore a loose tee shirt and cargo pants with standard army boots and a ball cap to shield his face from the sun's rays. Short brown hair stuck out from under the hat like it didn't want to stay down while hazel eyes warmed. 

The man pulled his hands from his pockets and clapped a hand on Sam's shoulder briefly in greeting as they slowly trekked forward, “Hey kid. Been staying out of trouble?”

An exasperated sigh, “Not really. It always seems to find me.” 

Will laughed, crows feet crinkling at the corners of his eyes like they always did when things were calm and the team was goofing off or acting like idiots. “Funny, that seems to be the way the world works.”

Words stuck in the boy's throat. He wanted to ask about Sarah and Annabelle but wasn't sure if that was a topic he should bring up, considering he didn't know where they were and how they'd got there. Instead he just requested a favor, “Will you tell your wife and Annie I said hi?”

“You bet.” That had apparently been the right thing to ask because the soldier continued to grin. 

They were silent for a time, just ambling along with no real destination in mind, no place to be or hurry in their steps. It was nice, to be next to Lennox. Sam had missed him a great deal but he wasn't going to say it of course. Mushy stuff was not his forte. Besides, the amiable quiet said enough for him. 

“Do you ever think about the End?” Will asked calmly, boots sinking an inch or so into the tawny sand.

Sam said nothing at first, letting his mind wander among the carved hills and open sky. “Yes.” Thinking it over, the boy scratched his ear absentmindedly before admitting, “I used to be afraid of it.”

“And now?”

Looking at what seemed to be William Lennox but might be something else, Jack sighed. Maybe it was his friend after all. Whether he was or not, whether this was real or not, didn't seem to matter all that much. “I don't know. I don't know if there is an End. Maybe it will always be another beginning. Maybe we will just end and there will be nothing at all after.” Gazing into the distance, the boy who was far too old to be a boy continued.

“I'm tired Will. Everyone I've cared about except for the other three has ended. I think I'd like to know what Ending feels like.”

Moving at a steady pace, the two wandered. Will appeared to be thinking, mouth turned down into a firm line and eyes constantly surveying their surroundings. Soldier training never really left. Realizing there was nothing to lose, Jack stopped and turned to the taller human.

“Are you really Will?”

Wry amusement lifted the shadow's in the man's face. Apparently he been expecting that sooner or later. “Yes. They thought a familiar and friendly face would make you happier.”

“They?” The teen asked warily, following Lennox's pointed finger to see tall figures standing in the distance near the closest mountain. Light glinted off metal. It was impossible for Sam not to recognize the large strangely shaped Cybertronians. He breathed a sigh, not exactly surprised. “The Thirteen.”

That actually explained a great deal more that it didn't. On the upside, at least he knew he wasn't dreaming. Most likely. This didn't tell him if he'd died again though. Carly was going to wring his neck if he died and left them now. They'd all just gotten together again and his death would hurt the Autobots, and June...... Jack closed his eyes and breathed deeply, winding the grief into a stone and dropping it down with all the other stones in his mind. There were a lot. 

He never saw the humans again once he died. The bots always showed up, slightly different or drastically different but always there. Even if they didn't know him. But the human people in his life, they were not like the four young adults. They never came around again. 

Jack sincerely hoped he hadn't died yet. He wasn't ready to leave June. She was one of the best mothers he'd ever had and his death would break both their hearts. 

“I can't stay long.” Will broke in softly, knowing the boy had been lost in his own thoughts. Sam startled a little, glancing over at the man who'd stopped walking. His shoulder's slumped. Lennox smiled sadly and thumped the boy on the back like he'd done a hundred time before, “Chin up kid. It'll be okay.”

“Be safe Will.” Sam wanted to say so many other things but wasn't sure what applied to this situation, “Happiness find you.” He finished with the Cybertronian luck phrase. Tipping his cap at the boy, Will smiled. Sam nodded to himself and flicked a glance at the waiting Thirteen. When he looked next to him again, Lennox was gone. 

He kept going. No reason not to, really. This time, he was more aware when someone started to walk with him. The crunch of footsteps gave it away. 

Spike looked over to see his dad walking beside him. 

He nearly fell over, eyes widened to the point of comical as he gasped. John Witwicky, nicknamed 'Sparkplug' by the bots, stopped too when he saw his son staring at him. Thicker set and heavily muscled from years of work in an auto repair shop, the man would've looked like someone you didn't want to get in a fight with except the easy smile and calm attitude showed his true nature. 

“Dad....” The boy couldn't get another word out, pain and grief choking him off and tears blurred his vision. It had been forever. Forever since he'd seen his dad. 

Sparkplug pulled the teen into a tight hug, murmuring in his ear, “Come here son. I missed you.” Burying his face in the once white grease-stained shirt, Spike trembled silently, holding on like his father would disappear if he let go. It was impossible to tell how much time passed before he'd calmed down enough to step back, still standing very close and unable to make himself get any farther away. The father just smiled and wrapped an arm around his son's shoulder as they started moving again. 

Furiously scrubbing at his face to hide any evidence that he'd cried, Spike couldn't help but study the man's face. He mapped out all the lines and marks he'd forgotten, the tiny white star near his father's left earlobe that had scarred from an accident at the shop, the parallel lines scoring his collarbone and disappearing beneath the shirt, the slightly crooked bent of his nose that had been broken and never healed right. It's been like that as long as he could remember. 

“Dad...... I'm sorry.” Spike said, when he couldn't hold back the any longer. “I'm so sorry and-”

The man shook his head, reaching over to ruffle light brown hair with his other arm, “Don't be sorry. Don't. I'm so proud of you, of all four of you, but really, I never expected to have a son as brave as you.” 

A work roughened hand cupped his cheek and rubbed the top of his cheekbones, the same thing he'd done when Spike was five and he'd fallen off his bike time and time again with bloody knees and scraped hands. Something hard and painful inside the boy eased, remembering the feeling of someone he knew and trusted telling him that it wasn't as bad as he thought. It had been a long time since he'd felt like a child and let the responsibility fall to someone else. 

“I left. I made that deal, Dad.” He tried to explain the guilt that had been eating at him for awhile. “I just wanted to help them.”

“And I am proud of you for making that choice. You did something most people don't have the courage to do. Don't regret and don't be sorry. I'm proud of you.” Sparkplug gently squeezed his son's shoulder. 

Ahead, the mountain was much closer than it was before. Spike could make out the distinctive shapes of the different Primes. Suddenly worried that that his dad would leave too quickly like Will had, the boy asked, “Can you tell me what Ending feels like?” It was a plaintive question, the fragile hope of a child asking a parent if everything would be alright. 

“I'm afraid I can't son.”

He wasn't surprised and nodded at his father's sad reply. Sparkplug's eyes conveyed how much he wanted to reassure his boy but could only do so much. “Don't worry though. After everything you've been through, it won't end badly. I promise you that.” Steel rang in his words, truth and belief in them getting Spike to grin. 

“Thanks Dad. You know, I would bet it feels like Beginning. They're pretty similar. In fact, I'm not sure I could really say what the difference is.”

Smile growing at his son's words, the elder Witwicky's eyes twinkled, “Sounds good to me.” 

Below their feet, the ground sloped up, tall pillars of rock and stone formations stretching above their heads. As the two humans came closer, several of the Thirteen knelt so they could be optic to eye. When they finally reached the metal giants, Spike decided that even though he'd been raised to be polite, sometimes bluntness was the best way to get answers.

“Am I dead?”

“Nope. Well, not yet. Eventually of course.” One of the Thirteen answered. Jack wasn't sure which one it was because while some kept the same shape, half their number like to change their armor every time he saw them, so he never knew which was which unless they told him. By the voice though, he suspected it was Amalgamous. Yep, he could see the shapeshifting mech changing forms off to the right. The big mech smiled at him and waved.

The answer though allowed him to give out a breath of relief. He wasn't dead which meant Miko wasn't going to punch him. He wouldn't have to say good bye to Raf or Raoul, the bots, or June yet.

Solus knelt and craned her helm closer to him, stating kindly, “We wished to speak with you regarding the favor you have done us and the Cybertronians of the multiverse.”

“What do we need to talk about?” Jack asked slowly. Crossing his arms, Sparkplug stood straight as an arrow just to the left of him, waiting to see how things played out. The boy couldn't tell what his dad was thinking besides the fact that he was wary of the Thirteen. 

“You have done more than expected.” One of the mechs near the back spoke up. 

Jack replied bitterly, “We failed at times.”

“Failed?” An amused but admiring tone, like the speaker was trying to teach a particularly slow youngling they liked. That was definitely Vector Prime. The mech shifter closer, pale wing and shoulder plates clicking quietly. “The war did not always finish while you were living in certain places but you did not fail boy. You did not allow Unicron to devour Cybertron or Earth in any life, nor did you allow our fellow Cybertronians to fight themselves to extinction. And you tried you hardest to help as many as you could. Spike Nathaniel Witwicky, you and the others did better than expected and more than we could have hoped for. Primus was right in choosing you four to aide us. We thank you for it.”

The praise was good. It made the weight in his heart lift just a little bit, from all the times he'd screwed up and someone had died. But he still didn't have his answer. 

“Why am I here?”

Tilting their helms and faces to look at each other, the Thirteen paused before Prima explained, “This life, as Jackson Darby, is your last. So too with your companions.”

“Oh.”

And that was all he could say. It wasn't surprising, not really when he knew that eventually they would not be reincarnated. And Will had been asking him about Ending. But to hear it spoken as a fact made his lungs still. “Why this time?” At least now he most likely knew why all four of them were together. It was so they could be around each other one last time.

“There are other humans in other universes to aide the Cybertronians who reside there. You have done more than expected and deserve rest.” 

His lips pursed, the urge to sit down and just not get up again ticking along his limbs. He should have stayed in bed this morning. “So I won't see the bots after I die this time. It's the last one.” Nexus tipped his helm. 

“We didn't say you wouldn't see them again.” A sly look crossed the mech's face and Jack narrowed his eyes suspiciously.

“But I won't be reincarnated!” He threw his hands up for emphasis, not even caring that they were nearly seven times his size and very close to him, “They'll be living in a different universe and-”

“Jackson, sparks do not normally cross to different dimensions. While on a rare occasion a spark will slip from the Well to another place it shouldn't be sparked to, it is not a usual occurrence. The Cybertronians you know now will go to the Well of Allsparks when their time is finished and they will wait to be reborn in their universe again. They will not move to a different one.”

The implications took a few seconds to really sink in. When they did, the boy threw his head back and laughed. They'd been wrong. They'd thought the bots hadn't remembered them but really, they shouldn't have because they weren't even the same sparks. Jack suspected the only reason Optimus had memories of the other lives was because the Matrix had shown him. But they weren't really Optimus' memories. At least, not that Optimus. 

When he'd gotten his emotions under control, Jack brushed his too long hair out of his face and looked up at the ancient Primes. “What will happen after? Am I allowed to know?”

“We cannot tell you.” Several of them spoke at once. It was rather annoying when they did that because then he couldn't figure out which ones spoke and couldn't glare at the speakers. But one of the taller ones, Onyx with his clawed servos and giant plated wings, shifted down onto his paws and crouched so that his beak was only inches from the boy's face.

A solemn raspy tone grated out, “Those living may only know they may pass on to the Well of Allsparks.”

Jack stared for a long moment, mind working furiously before he stated, “Sparks go to the Well. Not humans.” A very strange feeling was gathering in his chest and a buzz lit behind his eyes. He felt lightheaded. 

“When you agreed to Primus' proposal, your spark, or 'soul' as you call it, came to our jurisdiction.” Nexus smiled cheerfully, “Which means you have a spark and you're going to the Well. Your friends too. Long story short, that includes eventual regular reincarnations in your original universe but without the memories, like the usual Cybertronian sparks.”

A blink. “Oh.” Again. That was all he could really say. “But you can't tell me anything other than that, or what the Well is like.”

“Correct.” Prima straightened and took a few long strides a little higher up the ground, stopping at a space between two large formations and looking down over the ledge. He gestured for Jack to come look. The boy did, his dad following. At the edge of the rock, Jack could see that the hill dropped off down the other side to form a steep wall of rock that was actually a mountainside. The land continued downward into a deep and wide valley that spread out into a flat grassy plain. Below, what looked like Cybertronian buildings pressed against the rocky hills next to a bronze colored ship that was sticking out of the mountain. 

Sparkplug gently touched Spike on the elbow before briefly squeezing his hand. He didn't have to say 'see you'. The younger human could read it in his light brown eyes. As the man turned to amble down a small path cut into the grass and rock slope, heading down toward the valley, Spike whispered, “Bye Dad.”

A brief flash of a smile before John Witwicky continued walking and the boy stayed at the top of the ridge, looking down. There were people below, bots of all colors, shapes, and sizes. Most he recognized. Among them, Spike caught sight of a few humans but he was too high up to really get a good look at their features. One large mech with wings, Skyfire by the colors, stopped to help one of the humans carry somethings. By the open door of the Ark a tall red and blue mech, Optimus, leaned against the wall and talked with Ironhide. Glimpses of ones he knew to be Decepticons walked with the Autobots like they didn't care to fight anymore. 

It was strange and surreal, both familiar and so very different than anywhere else he'd been before.

What caught his attention more than anything was a flash of black and saffron yellow metal as a minibot drove through the streets before stopping at a corner to transform. Even from where he stood, Spike could see the tiny points of helm horns and recognized the figure. It was his best friend.

Heartache so strong that it hurt left him breathless, hands covering his mouth as he closed his eyes. The ache sang in his bones. He wanted to go home. 

Spike wanted it so badly. To help his Dad in the shop and play with Daniel outside, to greet the bots every day and chat with them, surprise Chip by sneaking up on the guy and then running because he knew his friend would get him back later. He wanted to hear Carly arguing science with Perceptor and Wheeljack in the labs. He wanted to go drive around with Bumblebee wherever the road took them just to feel the wind on his face and warm laughter as they talked and had fun. He wanted home more than he wanted anything else in the universe. 

When he opened his eyes, the atmosphere above the valley took his sight and kept it. It was more blue here. It seemed someone had fixed the sky. 

Even as he watched it, the boy realized that the shade of blue wasn't a faded tone but had also shifted to a completely different color of blue altogether. And that all he could see was the sky. Jack blinked, squinting as he looked up. There was green up there. Those were leaves. What......?

Another two blinks and the boy realized he was lying flat on his back beneath a tree, fluffy white clouds in a pastel sky and leaves filling his vision until he turned his head to see Arcee sitting next to him on the hill, staring around to keep an optic out for Decepticons. He swallowed and tried speaking. “Arcee.....?”

She jumped, turned to stare at him with wide pink and blue ringed optics, “You're awake! Thank Primus!” 

As he tried to sit up she used a servo to carefully push him back down. “Don't you dare move! Miko wrapped the cuts with some bandages but you're still bleeding and you might have a concussion.”

“What.... what happened?” He was still trying to figure out where he was. But Arcee was here and she was blue. Which meant he was still in the universe where the base was in Nevada. Expression tightening into a scowl, the motorbike explained. 

“We were fighting and I told you and Miko to run.”

Jack nodded and winced as he felt pain flare along the back of his neck and head, “I remember that. Something hit me.”

A very low and angry engine growl answered him, “Bulk threw a Vehicon. He hit some boulders and rocks went flying. One hit you on the back.”

Musing over that fact, Darby hummed and carefully felt his forehead, fingers deftly examining the sides and barely brushing against the back where wetness met his fingers. It stung but it wasn't too bad. Trying to move as little as possible, he took in their surroundings. He recognized the land as where he'd been before he'd had his little chat with the Thirteen. Looking up at his guardian, he replied promptly, “Well, I probably do have a concussion.”

She stared at him for a long moment, expression confused, worried, and just a tiny bit incredulous, “You're taking this rather well.”

“Jack!” Miko yelled, running up the hill to stop next to him and sit, eyes flicking back and forth to make sure he still wasn't about to bleed out, “Don't scare me like that! I can fix the bots, not humans!”

Bulkhead slowly plodded up behind her, footsteps hesitant and a cringe on his shoulders as he looked at Jack. But the big green mech relaxed when Darby gave a crooked grin and wiggled his fingers in a wave to show he wasn't upset. Miko narrowed her eyes suspiciously. “Why are you smiling?”

“It's a good day to be alive.” He gestured calmly upward at the towering plant above them, branches giving shade while allowing slanting rays of golden light down. A warm breeze tugged at their hair and clothes, whistling over the curves in the bot's armor while the musty smell of wild flowers scented the air. The other three looked at each other before Miko put her hands on her hips and tapped an impatient finger. Jack's smile widened. 

“When we get back to base, we need to talk with the others.” She nodded, suspicions confirmed. Something important had happened while he'd been unconscious. 

Arcee, however, was pretty sure the head wound was talking, “You have a concussion.” she sighed, “Don't move. Bulkhead's going to find the scrambler so we can contact base and get Ratchet.”

Making a noise of agreement, the boy let his eyes fall to half-mast and started to hum a song. After a few notes Miko joined in, reaching a softer higher pitch. Bulkhead moved around them to search the other side of the hill, his deep bass lending a beat to the old song the bot's hadn't heard in quite a while. By the time they hit the first verse, Arcee was leaning back against the tree and singing softly in her native language as they waited and rested. 

The Cybertronian lullaby rose and fell in soft waves around the hill as the sun moved toward evening.   
.  
.  
.  
End.


End file.
